Labyrinth of Insanity: Medusa's Dollhouse
by MakenshiCrona
Summary: Maka, Kid, BlackStar and their weapons are invited to a mansion-like bed and breakfast to be the first guests. They didn't know it was being run by a witch named Medusa, who wants them to play a life-threatening game. Disclimer: I don't own Soul Eater.
1. Beginning of the End

A/N: Ah, yes, the cheesy mystery/horror, who killed who. I really hope it isn't cheesy, I'll try my best, truly. This is going to be slightly AU, they all know each other, but they've never heard of Crona and Medusa, Ragnarok does not exist, only the black blood. I was inspired to write this because I put Horror in the genre section and I just felt like doing something nice and… the-images-that-sometimes-go-through-my-mind type. So… enjoy!

**Disclaimer: Soul Eater isn't mine, if it was, Crona would have killed half the world by now would pwn all.**

42…

Chapter 1:

Sorting out What's Happening

Maka tapped her buckled boots on the cement of the sidewalk she was standing on, arms crossed against her chest, beginning to get impatient. She pulled at a loose thread that was hanging on the side of her black trench coat, easy to see in contrast to her white gloves, nudging at the small travel bag at her feet.

The scythe meister was waiting outside a recently opened bed and breakfast that was a bit outside the outskirts of Death City, it hadn't been heard of yet since she and her friends would be the first guests there. She, Soul, BlackStar, Tsubaki, Death the Kid, Liz, and Patty got an e-mail saying that they were to have the honors of being the first guest (free of charge).

Since they were the most powerful meisters at Shibusen, apparently the owners felt that them staying there would attract more attention. Maka, at the moment, was the only one there, waiting outside. They were specifically told to come at five in the evening, so the blonde thought that maybe she would there ten minutes early.

The bed and breakfast's door was locked, so now she was impatiently watching for anyone else to come, Soul said that he had to go get something, insisting that he brought his lighter. When she asked why he said that there was bound to be candles, it would add to the homey feel.

Maka had looked at him in confusion and the scythe admitted that he dared BlackStar that he couldn't leave his hand in a flame for more than a minute and they hadn't tested it yet. Idiocy was what Maka had described him as, but Soul shrugged and zoomed away on his motorcycle to retrieve the lighter.

Of course, once he was out of sight, the thought went through Maka's head _why_ he had a lighter. Finally, the familiar sound of an engine and Maka perked up as she tried to see if it was Soul. It wasn't, the familiar shinigami Death the Kid came flying on his skateboard, landing next to her with the Thompson sisters in their gun form.

Out of convenience, Liz and Patty transformed back into their human selves and stretched, greeting Maka warmly. The technician calmed her anger and smiled as she greeted them back, saying hello to Death the Kid, who nodded back and unstrapped their luggage from the edge of his skateboard.

The others trickled in, Soul appearing several minutes after Death the Kid, also earning a large hard-covered novel in his head.

"Where do you hide that thing?" Soul asked agitatedly rubbing his head.

Maka crossed her arms, "It's a secret, I'm not telling you."

Everyone finally arrived, BlackStar sliding in saying that he was grateful they were waiting to see his godly presence. Tsubaki bowed apologetically toward the rest of the group, saying that they were late because BlackStar was running laps.

Suddenly the door of the bed and breakfast opened and a woman slipped out, dressed in a wavy long black skirt that went to her knees and a blouse that had two white around wrapped around her waist. She was wearing a pair of black loafers without any socks and her hair was a honey blonde that spike at the edges with a braid hanging down the middle of her chest.

The woman smiled brightly, her gold-like eyes sparkling, "Welcome, welcome, please come inside!"

She ushered them in enthusiastically, gushing how it was such an honor to have these powerful weapon and meister pairs to be her first guests. Once they were in the large foyer (for the building was eight stories and quite large and wide, it was about the size of Shibusen, almost a mansion), the woman turned to them, hands clapping together.

"It's wonderful that you are all here!" she chirped giving a small bow with her head, "I am Medusa, and I am the owner of this home."

Maka stepped up and gave a nod, "Thank you for inviting us."

Medusa's honey eyes widened, "No! It's my pleasure!"

"It's free, right?" BlackStar asked.

When Tsubaki hushed him, Medusa giggled, "Why, yes, free of charge."

Medusa skimmed her eyes over the children, "Well! I suppose I should show you your rooms, right? After you get the small tour of the place, your meal should be ready."

"Great, 'cause I'm starved!" Soul groaned, earning a whack on the back of his head by Maka.

The technician apologized, "Sorry for my partner."

"Non-sense," Medusa answered, "I have a plate of cookies right here, would any of you like some?"

They all politely, excluding BlackStar, took one, leaving the plate empty, and ate them. They were soft and warm, as if they'd just come out a few moments ago, making them all smile happily.

"Now, let me get… Crona, dear?" Medusa called.

Everyone looked toward a small hall that the one named Crona stepped out of, the teenager was wearing a calf-length black dress on the thin figure and a pair of thick black shoes. They had uneven pink lavender hair and pale blue eyes.

"Yes, Lady Medusa?" Crona asked.

Medusa smiled, "Please carry their luggage up the stairs to their room, if you could."

With a small bow, Crona replied, "Yes, Lady Medusa."

The teenager neared the group and was handed their things, huffing under the weight when BlackStar and Liz's luggage came, and Crona wondered what was inside. They noticed the kid's expression and answered that BlackStar always kept small weight lifters on trips and Liz just stuffed her bag with cosmetics and clothes.

"Please go upstairs," Medusa insisted, "Crona will be right there."

When the group disappeared from sight, Medusa dropped her cheerfulness and had on a look of seriousness. Crona shifted under the weight of the bags, leg lifted to support some of it from falling onto the ground.

"L-lady Medusa?" Crona asked, "Why are you doing this again?"

The snake witch looked over to her child, "They don't seem to recognize that I'm their nurse at Shibusen, which only adds up better for me. But from my research, they all hide a bloodlust that even they are not aware about."

"O-oh," Crona responded.

"Now," Medusa ordered, "Go back up there and show them around."

Crona began to make way over to the stairs, "Yes, m'am."

The teenager wobbled up the stairs and was met with the others at the end of the second floor hall at the large socializing table near the window at the back. The group all looked toward Crona and stood up, waiting for guidance.

"F-follow me please." Crona huffed out, wheezing still from the bags, finally adapting to some of the heaviness.

They followed the teenager and raised their eyebrow at the kid, it was hard to tell whether it was a boy or a girl, and it would surely be rude to ask. With a foot, Crona nudged at the doors which room was whose.

"This one is Mr… Evans', this is Ms. Albarn's… Death the Kid, Elizabeth and Patricia Thompson…Tsubaki Nakatsukasa…BlackStar…" Crona named off the rooms.

After everyone had memorized their room numbers, Crona led them onto the third floor, which consisted of a library on the right and a large room to the left that was closed with two doors, where Crona gestured them in with a nod. It appeared to be a ballroom, an elegant one at that, as the building was large, it seemed natural to have such a large room.

Crona heaved the luggage onto a table pressed against the wall and leaned against it breathing heavily, "…That… was heavy…"

Maka turned to the teenager, "Um… what are we doing here?"

Pale blue eyes turned to look at her wearily, visible dark circles under the eyes, "Lady Medusa instructed me to take you here beforehand, there is something that she wants to show you."

Suddenly, the door that was opened to let them in was slammed shut and a small click was heard. The group stared at it curiously and Crona paled even lighter than the skin already was, pale blue eyes panicking. Crona rushed over to the door and began yanking at the handle, trying to force it open.

"I don't know how to deal with this!" was what the teenager groaned when it was obvious the door was sealed by the lock.

BlackStar snorted and nudged the teenager away, "You're to weak and thin, the Great BlackStar will open it though!"

The ninja began to tug at the handle with more force, grunting as it still didn't budge, cursing aloud at the door. Crona glared at him and pushed him away from the door with surprising strength, as it was not known to the others about the black blood and how powerful Crona really was.

"You can't just open it!" Crona exclaimed, and looked up to the ceiling, "Lady Medusa?"

"Sorry, Crona, dear, but you are to be a part of this too." Medusa's voice was echoed around the room, and everyone noticed a small speaker in one of the corners of the room (which Kid was grumbling about quietly to himself), filling them with her voice.

Crona's eyes widened, "What! You can't do that!"

"Ah," the voice spoke again, "but you are to explain to them the rules, you'll have an advantage of knowing everything."

"Lady Medusa~…" Crona whined sadly.

Maka glared at the speaker, "What's going on!"

"Crona will explain."

Liz started to panic, "We're trapped in here!"

Patty merely giggled and patted the elder on the back, "It's okay, onee-chan!"

BlackStar growled and rushed at Crona, whose eyes widened seeing his charge, and grabbed the teenager by the neck, putting Crona in an inescapable headlock, "Tell us what the hell is happening and I'll let the girl go!"

Crona glared up at the ninja, "Hey!"

BlackStar blinked, "So it's a boy…"

A small chuckle was heard from the intercom, "Ah, no, I'll let my child tell you."

BlackStar shoved Crona to the side, how stumbled and regained balance, obviously not in a good mood.

Crona groaned, "Urg, I don't want to be a part of this~!"

The ninja folded his arms and looked at the boy, who cowered a bit under his stare, "So, what's going on?"

Crona sighed, "Lady Medusa is the nurse at your school-"

"That's why she looked familiar!" Soul burst in, Maka pinched him to make him be quiet.

"What's that have to do with anything?" Maka asked.

"Should I tell them?" Crona asked, question directed at the intercom.

"Yes."

"Lady Medusa is a witch."

"WHAT!" They all seemed to exclaim in unison.

Crona sped on with his speech, "She gathered you all here today because she wanted to see which one of you would snap under the pressure of insanity!"

BlackStar, reacting how he always did, grabbed a handful of the front of Crona's dress and brought him closer to his face, "How the hell is she going to do that! Somehow magically put insanity wavelengths through the room!"

"Yes."

The ninja let go of the witch's son and growled while Tsubaki tried to console him. Death the Kid spoke up, "Why all of us in the same room?"

Crona squirmed under all of the stares, he wasn't used to other people, "Lady Medusa also sees you all as threats, so when you fall into madness you will kill each other."

Maka was in daze her emerald eyes wide in shock, Tsubaki had tears trailing down her face, Liz was sobbing uncontrollably, Patty was frozen as her sister hung onto her, Kid was shaking in anger, Soul was clenching his hand around a thawing murderous Maka, and BlackStar was breathing heavily in attempt to calm himself.

"Why?" Kid growled.

Crona looked over to the shinigami thoughtfully, he felt pity for them, including himself because he was included in this mess with strangers, "Because… it will be…"

"A good experiment." Finished Medusa over the intercom.

A click of static was heard, signaling the witch had finished listening and answering, waiting to be able to start. Crona began to recite the rules to the still Shibusen students.

"Rule one…" he began, "You have to try and stay in your sanity, once you fall into madness, you cannot return sane."

'Dammit,' Crona thought inwardly, 'That's not very good for me then, now is it?'

"Rule two…" he continued, "You are able to use your weapons, the goal is to kill those who become insane before they kill you. Obstacles will be scattered around the building to test how insanity affects your fighting skill. Others will soon join into to this game-"

"This damn sadistic game!" Maka growled.

"Please do not interrupt me, I don't know how to deal with it. Others will join, they will have an advantage since they have not been affected entirely by the insanity."

Crona continued on in his monotonous depressed voice, "Rule three… If the meister is killed, the weapon still goes on, if the weapon is killed, the meister still goes on. There are other weapons, not transforming ones, hidden in random areas, you are to use them only if your partner is dead."

"Rule four…all of the exits are sealed shut, much like this door here, but it will be opened in a moment. They are closed with magic, it is impossible to open, so don't waste your energy trying."

"Rule five… there is food scattered throughout the eight floors of the mansion, but you have to work to get it."

"Rule six… Lady Medusa will occasionally give hints as to whom is falling into madness, once you go insane, Lady Medusa also has control over your mind."

Maka cut in, "H-how is that even possible! She shouldn't be able to know without soul perception, and there can't be a way to posses someone's mind!"

Crona hesitated before answering and spoke almost with a depressed innocence, "Um, the cookies you ate had some of her snakes in them, they are now implanted in your system. She can also kill you with them, but that will only happen if you find and try to attack her, or give lots of hints onto the newcomers."

With that, everybody gulped, but Liz broke in, "W-w-what about you! D-don't y-you have a snake? It would be unfair if you didn't!"

"Yes, I have a snake in my body." Crona answered dully.

Death the Kid glared in his direction, "How do we know?

The boy gave a weary sigh and responded, "Snakes sometimes react to electricity, so don't get near to much static, I can show you by getting near something…"

BlackStar held out a hand and Crona looked at it oddly, the ninja slapped a hand onto the boy's back, causing Crona to cough. A small crackle was heard from both the assassin and Crona.

"Yep." BlackStar assured, "He's got a snake."

"R-rule… s-seven…" Crona continued, "You cannot kill someone who is not insane, unless you are the one who went insane, then you'd have to die as well. If you think that they are insane, it doesn't matter, you have to be positive."

"Rule eight… one only counts as being insane when Medusa gives the clues, other that that, even if you're sure your positive, the only way to be sure is if Medusa says."

"But," Crona warned, "Don't think Medusa is above lying, she may leave the one who's insane with you just for fun. She's cruel that way."

"Rule nin-"

"Eight rules are enough," Death the Kid cut in.

Crona raised an eyebrow at the shinigami, "You should listen to the others if you want to survi-"

Death the Kid interrupted again, "I'm a shinigami, the ones here can't kill me! Going above eight is criminal! Everything else is unsymmetrical!"

"But-"

"Unsymmetrical!"

Liz, even in her panic, hit Kid on his head to get the reaper to shut up, tears running down her face, "Quit your OCD for once! We're going to die!"

"You may not…" Crona mumbled, "The last one to survive is going to have a day of freedom because you are so powerful, but Medusa says that the ones too powerful she will kill you herself… yeah, you're all going to die."

Soul jabbed a finger in Crona's direction, "What do you mean _we're _all going to die, what about you?"

Crona's pale eyes looked up and answered easily, "If I was the one to survive, Medusa wouldn't kill me because I'm on her side."

BlackStar snorted, "What make you think you'll survive?"

Crona merely shrugged, "Rule nine… When you kill someone or something, dispose of it's body in another part of the mansion, this is part of the obstacles others will have to face."

"Rule ten… we're all going to be locked in this building for several days, so don't eat all of the food in one go."

"Rule eleven… the obstacles will animate and inanimate, there will be some loose Kishin eggs throughout the- what?"

Everyone stared at him with wide eyes, Patty chirped, "How'd ya' get Kishin eggs to agree that they were going to die?"

Crona sighed, "Medusa stated that they were to get several powerful Shibusen students to kill. Continuing rule eleven… Kishin eggs, overhead guillotines, poison gas, etc. Don't be oblivious to your surroundings."

The boy looked to the strange teenagers in front of him, he know that he hadn't a clue of who they were, but they would have to be alliances to live, "That's it."

Death the Kid was grinning at how eleven was a symmetrical number happily. Crona informed them that the weapons should transform now, since the game started once the doors were opened.

"Insanity will affect you, Lady Medusa wants to see the changes. Madness wavelength will be surrounding you everywhere while Medusa is safe." Crona added in.

Soul squinted his eyes, "Why should we trust you?"

"Because I don't want to die. If you trusted me, if I survive, you do. Though if I don't, you'll either escape fortunately, or die along beside me."

Maka huffed, "Who knows, Soul? Maybe he'll be of help."

BlackStar laughed and picked up one of Crona's thin arms, "This small thing? Why would we need him? I bet he'll be the first to go down, he doesn't look like he'd be able to kill one of us."

Death the Kid's gold eyes studied the thin boy in the black dress, "Well, you are right, he seems like he'd be more troublesome than helpful."

Crona's expression was unemotional as the others debated to kill him or not, Tsubaki timidly added, "He _is_ the son of the witch, he probably has a Kishin egg soul."

Crona sighed, "I know every trap, every bonus, all the advantages and disadvantages hidden around this mansion. You'd be throwing out your guide."

"H-he makes a good point." Liz stuttered.

Patty ran up to Crona, "Okay, we'll keep you around! But if you try and get us, I'll kill~ you!"

The boy's pale eyes blinked toward the blonde pistol a bit fearfully and nodded his head, "Alright. The only way I'd murder you is if you had fallen into insanity, those are the rules. If you break an important rule, Lady Medusa will kill you."

Maka clenched her gloved hand, forest green eyes serious, "Soul."

Soul nodded and transformed, and the other weapons followed his example, landing in their meister's hands. Maka spun the scythe in her hand, the blade glinting in the lights of the ballroom. BlackStar caught Tsubaki in her chain scythe mode, the metal clinking. Kid spun Liz and Patty in his hands, the guns polish shining.

Crona gave a weak smile, "Now that that is settled, let's start the game."

The double doors of the ballroom began to creak open, Crona being the closest to it, and the game began.

42….

A/N: was it good, was it good? I hope it was. The only way I'll know is if you review, so pleeaase review! You KNOW you want to press the blue button that says review, please.


	2. The Game

**A/N: You all make me sad by not reviewing, seriously, if I don't get any, I'll stop writing. I don't like to keep posting things if I think that no body reads them. Like, 25 people clicked on the story (assuming that half of them did it by accident it's still around twelve people), and I got no reviews (excluding my three friends , they did because I told them to). Pushing away self-pity and going on to those who actually read this, here's chapter two.**

**CXM if you squint.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater, if I did, Crona and Kid would get more screen time.**

42…

Chapter 2:

The Beginning of the Game, Who Will Die Today?

As the doors opened, Crona charged before anyone could react, a blur, then jumping back into the room, the corpse of a large man falling in front of him. How the boy killed the Kishin egg was a mystery to the others, but they shrugged it off, he was the son of a witch after all.

Smearing off the red blood splattered across his cheek, Crona turned to them, "That was the first object. Be aware of your every surrounding."

The boy stepped over the dead body that was leaking blood onto the glossy floor of the ballroom, exiting out the doors, waiting for the others to follow. Almost immediately, the others felt the large wave of insanity wavelength hit them, making them dizzy.

Crona waited until they regained their original posture, he was far to used to his own insanity and others for it to affect him at this low level. Maka stumbled over to Crona, scythe held loosely in her hand, and held onto his shoulder for support, making the boy wince at the touch.

"What are we supposed to do first?" she asked.

The witch's son scooted away a bit from the girl, he didn't know how to quite deal with them, "W-we're just supposed to walk around for the first couple hours. Getting used to the mansion, killing things so they won't get us later. Things won't get very interesting until one of us goes insane."

"You're like your mother." Death the Kid grumbled toward the depressed and maddened boy.

Crona turned to look at him with his pale blue eyes, the dark circles enhancing the sadness, "I don't like my mother, it hurts to know that I'm like her in any way."

Turning away slowly, eyes cast downward, Crona started down the hall, which had looked differently than it had before. Instead of the clean hallway that it was, blood was smeared across the walls, most likely from the Kishin egg. The short carpeted floor and also stained with blood, the meisters noticed, as Crona walked farther away from them.

The thin boy was a bit different also, when he first was introduced as the bellboy, Crona was timid and obedient, some source of life in his powdery blue eyes. Now, Crona seemed to show his true colors, black and gray, depressed and saddened.

The meisters followed Crona, who seemed to stiffen that they found him as their leader of guidance through the house. The more they seemed like they depended on him to help them get through this, the tenser the boy seemed to get.

When he turned a corner to go to the thin dark passage that had a flight of stairs that led to the fourth level, Crona relaxed himself, he was just this way because all of his hate was bound up and he didn't spend time around other people. Calmer now, the boy gestured for the meisters to follow him, his more timid nature returning to the others relief.

"Watch your step," Crona whispered, "it gets darker."

It was true, that even on the third step of the stairs the dimming of light was apparent, by the time they reached the top, it was nearly pitch. Maka bummed into Crona, and the boy gasped and jumped away, bumping into a crate that was lying around.

That wasn't good, everything either held something bad, or something terrible. Crona landed hard onto it, breaking the wood with a loud crack, making the meisters take a defensive stance as they thought it was a kishin egg.

"What was that?" asked Maka.

"It sounded like it came from the left." Kid stated.

"Maka," BlackStar called, "you have soul perception. Try to use it to see where the thing is."

Crona yelped when he felt a mouse, which there were many in the box, squash under his weight and another run up his dress.

Yelping wasn't very good at the moment since the meisters thought that now there _was_ really a kishin egg there in front of them. The meisters were letting out small gasps of surprised when the mice ran around their feet, squeaking and making Liz whine. But Crona was mumbling how he didn't know how to deal with the small mouse that was trailing around his leg, making the boy shiver and let a small uncomfortable whimper.

"Hey, where'd that boy go?" BlackStar asked.

Maka raised an eyebrow, though it wasn't seen in the darkness, "You mean that Crona kid?"

"I-I'm… over… here…" Crona muttered out, trying to catch the mouse that was still squirming in his dress, finally catching the small animal and releasing it.

"Why are you still on the ground?" Maka asked, realizing that the boy was the one who crashed.

Crona stuttered out his response, "A… a mouse… ran up my dress."'

Of course at this, even in the deadly situation they were in, BlackStar bust out laughing at Crona, causing the boy to blush, though no one could see.

"That's what you get for looking so much like a girl!" The ninja chuckled while Tsubaki tried to scold him with her words.

Crona pushed up form the ground, sending a non-seen glare in the assassin's direction, "I can lead you into a room and lock you in there from the outside."

"I'd break it down!" BlackStar exclaimed, "I'm going transcend god!"

"Let's just get going," Crona blushed, "There are several kishin eggs scattered on this level."

Death the Kid directed a question toward the boy, "Why haven't they attacked us, yet?"

Crona's footsteps were audible as he began to walk again, "They're in the rooms. So… be careful when walking past any doors, I don't want any of you to die."

"Why?" the meisters asked in unison, the weapons nodding in silent agreement.

The thin boy hesitated slightly, his footsteps stopping, and a breath of his was heard, "Because… I don't like death… and… you all have been nicer to me than any one else has in this world."

Crona's footsteps continued, more softly and quieter, the outline of his body that was once barely visible was gone into the darkness. The three meisters followed after silently, but the weapons blinked in awe, perhaps the witch's son wasn't that bad.

From ahead, they all heard the creak of hinges and a wet gushing sound, abruptly followed by the thud of a body hitting the floor. Maka, Kid, and BlackStar rushed over to the noise, hoping that Medusa's son wasn't dead, because not only will their guide have been lost, but it seemed sad now to think it.

"Crona?" Maka called out, the unfamiliar name rolling strangely off her tongue.

"Y-yes?" a timid voice called out.

The meisters and weapons all let out sighs of relief, Maka called back, "Oh, okay, we were just wondering-"

The presence that was supposed to be Crona grew closer, a dark aura around it, "Wondering if I was okay?"

Maka backed up, as well as Kid and BlackStar, at the thin figure approaching them. A feigned smile was plastered on his face, powdery eyes crazed. A light shined from behind it, a small circular orb that had the streaks of the rainbow at its borders. Suddenly, the body that was Crona sucked in a breath and fell to the floor with a thud, making Maka take a jump back.

"… Don't be fooled by those…" Crona's voice spoke softly.

Looking up from the dead body, the meisters saw that another body that was of Crona, was holding a flashlight. He neared them and handed one over to Maka, BlackStar and Kid, but the ninja stared intensely at the boy.

"W-what?"

"How do we know you're the real Crona kid?"

Crona sighed, "The shape shifting Kishin eggs don't have snakes in them, I do."

After Crona passed the test of having a snake and the dead corpse didn't, they continued onward, flashlights shining across the dark floor. The floors squeaked at the combined weight of the teenagers and weapons, making them all wary and straining their ears.

With a step onto a sensitive part of the wood that made up the floor of this level, Maka's foot slipped through the crack, making the meister fall, causing a loud thud to echo through the walls. She tried to squirm out but wasn't able to, her flashlight rolling on the floor around her.

Death the Kid was about to help the meister out of the hole, but several kishin eggs suddenly appeared around them, emitting soundlessly from the hall doors. There were a total of twelve, how Medusa found so many kishin eggs was a mystery to the students at Shibusen, and they were circling around, eyeing the blonde stuck.

Flinging his flashlight down, BlackStar went and swiped at one of them, cutting the one closest to him at the shoulder, red blood spraying from the wound. Death the Kid and Crona acted as well, going at the ones the closest, handling four at a time, blocking them from getting to Maka.

The insanity wavelength that came from the crowd of kishin eggs and the madness in the air was overwhelming to all of them, including the weapons. Soul transformed back into his human self and kept his arm into a blade, ignoring Maka's objections, helping Death the Kid with his bunch.

BlackStar finished of his crowd and went to take out one of Crona's enemies, who was taking them out with a sword that he didn't know where it came from, seeing that Death the Kid was in no need of his help. Crona was knocked onto the floor by on of the kishin eggs, the sword making a clatter, but abruptly being cut off by Crona wielding it again somehow.

Once they were dead, red orbs bobbing through the air, Crona insisted that they take them, seeing as it would only help them survive even longer with more powerful weapons. The boy was sitting cross-legged on the floor as the weapons took their fair share amount of souls.

Apparently, as what the students saw, Crona was a swordsman, how he somehow made his sword appear from nowhere like Maka with her book, confused them. Crawling over, Crona went to the blond still stuck torso deep into the floor, fuming silently.

He hesitantly took the hand she gave him, and pulled her out, surprised when the meister wobbled and needed to hang onto him for stableness. Soul returned to his meister's side and went back into his weapon form.

They carried on, Liz still panicking about how it was dark, and Patty cheerily echoing her laugh through the now empty floor. The flashlight beams started to dim and they all had to squint to see. Crona mumbled to them to hold their breath for a moment before he kicked the wall.

Apparently in doing so, he deactivated a censor that would spread out smoke fumes, and said it was safe to breathe again, how that was just a precaution. The Shibusen followed the witch's son silently, he was a strange one, with his dark aura and timid personality, no emotion leaking into his voice.

"C-crona-san?" Maka asked quietly.

Said swordsman stopped at the mention of his name and answered hesitantly, "Y…yes?"

The blonde voiced her question, "Where do you keep your sword?"

A brief moment of silence.

"… it's a secret… I can't tell you." Crona whispered, saying near the same words Maka had with Soul, only his was true in hiding something.

Death the Kid spoke up, "It's safe to tell us. We won't hurt you."

BlackStar let out a small snicker, "Only because we'll die if we do kill him."

This earned the assassin a sharp jab by Death the Kid's elbow in his gut, the shinigami hissed, "shut up."

"No," Crona slowly spoke, "I'm… different… even for a witch's child."

"Why-?" Maka started, but a large crash was heard.

Directing their flashlights toward the spot were it was heard, being close in front of them, they all saw Crona pushing himself up from the ground with a groan. A blade was sliced across the hall, horribly close to the swordsman, seeming to have gotten him since Crona was clutching his shoulder.

Standing up wearily, Crona stood up, something splattered across his face. The boy lifted his hand from the wound, but his let out a small hiss when the air touched it, clamping a hand around it once more. Crona blushed at the stares the others were giving him, stuttering out in a question why they were staring.

Maka moved closer and lifted a hand to Crona's face, curiously running a gloved finger over the black liquid splashed over his cheek, causing the boy to flinch and stumble back. The scythe meister looked at the substance on her fingers, wondering where it had come from. Death the Kid and BlackStar came to look at what it was two, furrowing their eyebrows at it.

"Oooh~ what's that?" Patty asked.

Death the Kid studied it with his gold eyes, "I don't know."

BlackStar poked it, "Ew, it's sticky."

"Then don't touch it!" Soul yelled at his friend.

Maka looked up at Crona, who was inspecting the wound under his hand, almost seeming to try to hide it. The blonde snatched his hand, earning a small squeak from the boy, and looked at his shoulder. A visible gash was seen, splitting across his skin, with the same black substance pooled around it, camouflaging with the black dress.

BlackStar blinked, "What is that?"

Crona avoided their eyes as the wound began to close with the black substance hardening, Patty throwing in an awed, "Woah!"

"What is it?" Maka asked.

Crona took his hand back from the blonde and began to walk slowly in the other direction whispering, "Do you know? My blood is black."

Death the Kid's eyes narrowed as the swordsman began to walk again, noticing the other to meisters sink in the information. Liz was trying to wrap her mind around everything, the poor girl couldn't handle shock well. Tsubaki was mulling over the fact, wondering if it was possible that the black substance, was indeed, Crona's blood.

The swordsman was far ahead of them before they all broke away from their thinking, making them all have to jog up at the boy's pace. Crona directed his flashlight toward another set of stairs, gesturing for the others to hurry.

The boy ran his hand over the wall and came across a switch, flipping it on, the third level was filled with light. Maka and Kid shielded their eyes from the light while BlackStar looked around, narrowing his green eyes at the scenery.

Blood was splattered across the walls, they all would have thought it was the Kishin eggs just smearing it on the walls, but either they murdered each other, or there were other people. Crona noticed that the students were staring in awe at the wearing wood and blood, the floor torn apart in some places, door hanging from their hinges.

Tsubaki transformed back into her human body and held a hand to her mouth, pointing to the inside of one of the doors. Death the Kid noticed the girl's gesture and looked inside, tightening his grip onto Liz and Patty as he peered through the door.

A flesh colored Kishin egg was pinning a man to the wall, the monster was almost blob like with no sharp angles on its body. The man seemed to have already died of fright, his limp body hanging from the kishin egg's grasp.

It was leaning in to the man to rip out his soul, and the monster had no mouth. But the closer it got, the skin below its slotted beady eyes ripped apart, the skin holding on by a stringy connection, like saliva made from the flesh. It revealed black and brown stained sharp teeth, a hiss escaping its mouth as the kishin egg moved in to tear out the dead man's chest.

"What the hell?" BlackStar whispered to Crona, not loud for once, "Why is there a human here?"

"I think I remember Lady Medusa telling me about that." Crona thought, "How there were some humans here to satisfy their hunger so they didn't kill you first thing."

Maka growled, "We have to find them all before it's too late."

Death the Kid shot at the disgusting creature, gaining the Kishin egg's attention, and yelled behind him, "Here he comes!"

The Kishin egg growled and dropped the dead carcass and came speeding at Death the Kid, running on his front arms like an animal would. It came at surprisingly fast, charging at the shinigami, Death the Kid jumped back with his yellow eyes wide, sweat appearing at his temple and he braced himself for the impact.

Kid froze for a moment in shock when the kishin egg sped around him, sprinting on his chunky arms toward the rest of the meisters. The others began to act, as they felt the kishin was attacking them as a group. But their eyes widened when the blood splattered across their faces, bodies frozen.

The kishin had targeted one of the four meisters, mouth opening wide, black teeth sharp as they cut through the flesh at the chest. Maka's grip on Soul was shaky as she saw the targeted fall onto their knees, the section of the chest gone, heart slowing to a stop, soul in the kishin egg's hand

BlackStar's eyes widened when the Kishin egg charged at him, and the last thing he was aware of was the stench of it ripping out his torso.

42…

**A/N: yes, I can see the flames already. Though, at least flames are better than nothing. No, I don't hate BlackStar, I think he's epic in fact, but I just had to kill ONE of them off first. No, I'm not suggesting he's weak either being taken out by a kishin egg, he was just in shock at the speed it was going and how it targeted him. So, putting that aside, how was it? I really want to know, if I don't get reviews, I won't continue it. And all the people that hate the story because a cannon died, it's in the horror section for a reason. To all of you who actually ENJOY this, please, please, please review. It would be greatly appreciated. **


	3. One With No Nightmares

**A/N: Okay, so I'm glad that I finally got reviews, apparently the trick is to threaten and beg to you all … Anyways, I'm just glad that you all like my story, it's just that I need motivation. Apart from reviews, the only motivation is from myself, and I'm not the most egotistic person out there so… Whatever to the story, thanks for the reviews.**

**CXM if you squint, never mind, some CXM.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater, if I did, I wouldn't be writing fan fictions.**

Chapter 3:

Spending the Night in the Mansion, One Without Nightmares.

"BlackStar!" Tsubaki cried.

The kishin egg's purple tongue curled out and laced around BlackStar's soul, saliva dripping from its mouth. Tsubaki sped over and ripped BlackStar's soul from its grasp, kicking away, angering the monster to target her.

Death the Kid shot at it numerous times, killing off the creature, letting it fall to the floor and its red soul tore away from the body. Maka fell to her knees, Soul clattering to the ground, and reached out toward the ninja's deceased body, not bearing to believe that BlackStar had died. The ninja was the strongest of all of them, he couldn't have died from one Kishin egg, she couldn't bear that.

Liz and Patty had transformed back into their human forms and had neared Tsubaki, trying to comfort her, the weapon yelled at them to stay away, tears running down her face. Tsubaki held onto BlackStar's soul, clutching it to her chest, tears sliding off its round surface.

"I-if I hadn't-hadn't of t-t-transformed!" Tsubaki cried, "I-it's a-all my f-fault!"

Patty balled her hands to her chest and shouted, "No, it's not, don't blame yourself!"

"I… I want… t-to have it…" Tsubaki told them.

Liz exclaimed, "B-but, you can't do that!"

"I don't care!" Tsubaki cried.

Death the Kid spoke up, "Once we get out of here, my father will have to punish you for that. We… will get out of here… somehow."

Crona mumbled, "The only way to do that would to kill Lady Medusa."

Maka wobbled over to the weapon, "Tsubaki… I-I'm sorry… but, taking the soul would turn you into something none of us want you to be…"

The girl's deep sapphire eyes wavered, "I… i… d-don't c-care…"

"BlackStar wouldn't have wanted you to do that!" Patty threw in, fists clenched, sky blue eyes wide and filled with tears.

Death the Kid began to speak up again, "Tsubaki… just know that if you were to hunt other humans after this… we are going to kill you."

"You're going to let her!" Liz exclaimed.

Maka clenched her gloved hand and started toward him, but Soul, now in his human form, held her back, silent with his best friend's death. He held onto his meister in attempt to calm the blonde from murdering someone in her anger and angst.

The shinigami continued, "Are you truly willing to accept that fate?"

Tsubaki nodded sadly, eyes locked onto the strong blue soul in her arms, "… yes."

With a nod, Death the Kid gave permission to the weapon to consume her meister's soul, but Tsubaki shook her head and said that she wanted to hold it for a while longer. Crona watched the tragic play of the friends, their sadness reaching out to him, though his emotions were untouched, death was just a natural part of life.

"You're all tired…" Crona stated, "You should all go rest…"

Everyone looked toward the lavender haired boy with grief filled eyes, Death the Kid narrowed his serious eyes, "So that you can kill us while we sleep?"

"The room we were in at the beginning is the only room that isn't completely filled by madness, though it will slowly. We can all sleep there tonight since it's the safest room right now. Though, one or two nights from now it will be the same as the others. " Crona explained, unfazed by the shinigami's sharp question.

They all nodded though, Tsubaki looked longingly at BlackStar's fallen body, but Maka put a hand on her shoulder to let it go, it wouldn't be healthy to take it along with her.

The ninja's weapon gave a sad nod and lifted herself from the ground, and she and the others made their way through the emptied hall. Tsubaki trailed in front of them, remembering the way to the ballroom, her steps wobbly as she descended the stairs in her angst.

Once they were all at the ballroom, ridding of the body of the dead kishin egg Crona had killed, they all spread out through the large room to rest. There was a small hand clock near Medusa's intercom said that it was only eight twenty-four, but looking outside the window, the October sky was dark with no stars out; the moon's grin having blood drip down from its teeth, signifying BlackStar's death.

Tsubaki was laying on the floor, as they all were, legs to her stomach, arms wrapped around her meister's soul. Tears were still falling from her eyes, the salty water sliding across the glossy floor of the ballroom, and one hand was clenching the edge of the skirt of her dress. The skirt of her pale cream dress was fanned out across the floor and her leg, the slit baring her left leg, the long sweat band around her half sleeved arm trying to keep her warm.

Death the Kid was laying on his back, hands folded at his stomach, resting symmetrically, eyebrows furrowed. Patty was sprawled beside him, like a sister depending on her older brother to protect her during the night, eyebrows furrowed as well. Her normally cheerful expression was in one like she was having a nightmare, as most of them were, her head twitching to one side as her hands clenched.

Liz was hanging onto her sister's hand, keeping the girl restrained from thrashing in her bad dream, other hand clenching at the skin of her stomach in attempt to hold back her pain. Her hat was laying on the floor next to Patty's, and her dark brown-blonde hair was fanned below her back.

Soul was leaning against a wall, head leaning to the side and resting on his shoulder, hands folded below his stomach, his black jacket starting to slip from his shoulder. One of his legs was bent up, and his thin black headband was on the floor.

Crona was curled up in the corner farthest from everybody else, grip tight around his knees, uneven lavender hair sprawled across his arms. He was having nightmares like the rest of them, though his was normal, since he had nightmares nearly every night.

Maka was sitting next to her partner, in a position like Crona was, but her head was up and her grip was loose. She was the only one still awake; unable to go to sleep, gloved hands loosely holding the edges of her plaid skirt. The bottom of her black trench coat was spread out over her bent up legs, her blonde pigtails messy as they hung at the front of her shoulders.

The scythe technician looked over to Crona on the other side of the room, being so far away form the rest of them. The thin boy was unsociable, and in this deadly situation, it probably wouldn't help either, and Maka almost felt bad for him. She saw that Crona was apparently a light sleeper, since just the light shuffling of Tsubaki, who was the closest to him at two meters, made him start to wake up.

With a sigh, Maka stared at his curled form, wanting to know more about the timid boy. Wow, she was starting to sound like Stein a bit, maybe the insanity was getting to her.

'No, no.' she thought, 'Anti-Demon wavelength right? It'll take a lot more to make me crack under the pressure.'

Maka shook her head and started to silently crawl across the room over to the direction Crona was, scooting across the waxed floor to remain quiet in getting closer. She was a couple about thirty centimeters away from the boy, being painfully quiet to not wake the paranoid boy.

The scythe technician reached out a hesitant gloved hand to touch Crona's arm, the slightly shaky cloth padded fingers brushing the thin fabric of his dress. Crona's body tensed and his head snapped up with a sharp, but quiet, gasp, head looking in her direction with panic.

Seeing that it wasn't someone to come kill him, Crona's heart slowed as he squirmed away from the blonde, not knowing how to deal with girls. Maka, however, just moved closer, trapping the swordsman from escaping.

He let out a soft whimper of discomfort, "W-what d-do you w-want?"

"Tell me," Maka began, "why your mother has us here."

Crona's pale blue eyes avoided Maka, also making sure no one else was awake, "W-why d-did you come t-to me t-though? Y-you can ask h-her y-yours-s-self."

Maka's emerald eyes kept their gaze on the witch's son, "Because, you give more direct answers. Besides, you're much nicer than Medusa would be."

The boy was gnawing on his lip, staring down at the floor, "Oh…"

"So," Maka continued, "tell me."

Crona let out a small breath; "L-lady Medusa has been studying you all from her p-position as a nurse at Shibusen… S-she says that you all have a certain bloodlust inside of you that she wants to see emerge, a-and the fact that you're students at Shibusen, Medusa feels that it will be interesting."

Maka's emerald eyes narrowed, "That's cruel."

"Lady Medusa is always cruel." Crona responded.

Maka looked down to the polished floor and whispered, "I'm sorry…"

The swordsman blinked his pale blue eyes, which were staring ahead at the opposite wall, and looked toward the blonde. She was in the position she was in before she came over, loosely held in a ball, staring at the floor, pigtails lying across her shoulders.

"W-what?" Crona asked distantly.

"I'm sorry," Maka repeated, "that she's your mother."

It remained silent for a moment and Maka's eyes kept still on the floor, but the emerald orbs widened slightly when she saw small drops of water fall to the polished tile, hitting with soft patters. Looking up, blonde hair brushing away from her face, Maka saw silent tears streak down Crona's face as he stared at her. His pale blue eyes were now a deep navy color, like the dark night outside you could see from the sealed window in the room, the shining of his eyes in the moonlight reflected how the stars would if they were out that night instead of the deep darkness filled with the bleeding moon.

Crona noticed that she looked at him and he turned away, wiping away some of the tears rolling form his eyes down his cheeks, "I-I've… never… had s-someone… a-p-pologize t-to me before."

Maka's tired expression softened into a genuine thoughtfulness as she watched the boy before her. With a small smile, Maka reached out, ignoring Crona when he flinched away, and wrapped her arms around his upper torso, holding around his shoulders. Crona stiffened into a statue at the closeness and the unfamiliar gesture, frozen as Maka laid her head against his shoulder.

"I'm not going to hurt you…" Maka whispered.

Crona shuddered and wheezed in an uncomfortable breath, "W-why… a-are you… h-hol-lding m-me?"

Maka tightened her grip around the boy, "It's a hug."

"Y-you can… t-touch people… without hurting them?" Crona asked, throughout his life, every touch meant hurt.

The scythe technician didn't answer as she nuzzled her cheek softly into his wounded shoulder, brushing against the exposed skin, smiling as she felt the swordsman's stiff body finally relax. Maka finally felt drowsy, her forest green eyes drooping shut as she still rested on Crona, his lavender hair brushing the top of her head.

Of course, as soon as the blonde fell asleep, her dreams were invaded by nightmares, making Maka clench her hold around Crona harsher. Crona winced slightly at the blonde's unconscious strength, watching her eyebrows furrow and her teeth grind together in pain.

The swordsman paid no attention to the aching throb in his shoulders, especially since the blonde had her head against his now bruised shoulder, but it didn't matter since the black blood helped most of it. Crona's dark blue eyes blinked lazily, his head resting on top of Maka's in an unfamiliar fashion of contact, falling asleep easily.

Crona's dreams, for once, and unlike the rest of them, were not invaded by madness of painful nightmares, the odd feeling of peaceful unconsciousness floating around him as the girl beside burned a soft warm feeling against his body.

He had a small smile playing at his lips, a weird gesture that he never did, as he fell asleep.

**42…**

**A/N: Okay, so I can't help but be squishy on the emotions between Maka and Crona in this story. I'm trying to bust out as many chapters as possible before my school year (why can't we all just stay dumb?) starts in a week. Some more blood and craziness to come next chapter, so people who want to see some things explode (there will, indeed, be some booms), be patient and enjoy the sad chapter. **

**Pleeeaase review~! Reviews only take a few moments, but they make me super happy and more support to write this story~.**


	4. Whose Madness Will Invade?

**A/N: Wow, this took forever to update. This may be a horror/ tragedy fic, but that doesn't mean I don't throw in humor~! **

**Responses to Reviews:**

**Sailor sofia: Yeah, Tsubaki's got it tough. But don't hate Medusa, she awesome~ ^^! Despite how bitchy she is :( **

**Ember Hinote: Thank you for reviewing~!**

**Kitty Attack: Booms are what action is all about~ *evil grin* **

**Sarah: Thanks for the compliment! Sorry that you were bummed out on BlackStar dropping, but I kind of tried to use foreshadowing in the first chapter where he's making fun of Crona saying that he'd die first, but it ended up being himself. But, anyways, thank you for the review! **

42…

Chapter 4:

BlackStar's Dead, Who Will Fall Into the Madness?

"Crona and a girl~ sittin' in a corner.

S-N-U-G-L-I-G~!"

Said two teenagers woke up to the voice emitting from the intercom, panicking at the words and scurrying apart from each other in fear the others would see the odd togetherness. Crona looked around and saw that everyone else was still asleep, then skidded over in the direction of the intercom.

"Shut up, Ragnarok!" he hissed up at the speaker, "And that's not even how spell snuggling!"

"I know," the other teased over the intercom, "but none of the other letters would fit."

Crona glared at the object up on the wall, "Why are you even _at_ the intercom?"

"Because it fun." Ragnarok answered easily.

Shuffling static was heard in the background, "Ragnarok, move, you aren't supposed to be using this."

"Yes, Lady Medusa." Click.

Sighing, Crona turned away from to the speaker and saw the other teenagers beginning to wake up due to the noise, shaking away the remaining memories of that night's nightmare's. Maka resumed her original place earlier that last night, sitting little ways away from her partner, and shaking him awake.

Rubbing away the sleep from his eyes, Soul groaned, "Urg… I hate this house!"

Death the Kid sat up and ran a hand through his hand, "Though, we have no choice. Unless we kill that witch, that's hiding who's who knows where."

"Maybe if we blew the house up, we'd find her easier." Patty threw in groggily and yawned.

"I don't think that would be safe to do, Patty." Death the Kid commented, "We would end up releasing all of the kishin eggs, and we wouldn't want others to end up BlackStar…"

Patty looked away guiltily for suggesting her idea that would result in people dying like her friend, "I'm sorry, Kid-kun…"

Liz hugged her sister, "It's not your fault you naturally think that way, Patty. Don't feel s-so d-down because… because…"

The elder sister that was attempting to comfort the younger from BlackStar's death burst into tears, crying onto Patty's bare shoulder, making the comfort role switch to the other. Maka held a hand to her heart painfully and moved over to Tsubaki, who was still shuddering in her sleep, BlackStar's soul clutched protectively to her chest.

"Tsubaki…" Maka whispered gently, lightly shaking the weapon, "Tsubaki… wake up…"

Tear marks were still fresh on the girl's cheeks, loose strands of her long black hair sticking to the damp skin, and she murmured, "B-Black…Star…"

"It's Maka, Tsubaki, please wake up."

"M-maka…?"

The female weapon opened her glittering sapphire eyes to look up at the scythe meister above her, wiping away the tears away from her eyes with the hand that wasn't wrapped around her own meister's soul. Tsubaki looked around the room to see everybody awake and looked back up to Maka, voicing a question.

"M-maka-chan?" she began.

The blonde tilted her head slightly, "Yes?"

"Where's BlackStar?" she asked innocently, not recalling yesterday's events.

Liz began to cry in the background, sobbing into Patty's shoulder again, the younger blonde rubbing Liz's back comfortingly. It was sad, that's what she thought, how could it be like this, for Tsubaki to forget what happened.

Maka bit at her lip, what was she supposed to say? The truth? "Tsubaki… BlackStar is gone."

The weapon tilted her head, still clutching onto the large blue soul at her chest, sapphire eyes innocent, "To where?"

'Aw, dammit.' Maka thought.

"He's dead." Soul grumbled bluntly.

Tsubaki's dark eyes widened, "W-wha…?"

"It's true," Death the Kid added, "I'm sorry, Tsubaki."

She looked down and her sapphire eyes widened with seeing the floating orb in her hold, and tears began to form in her eyes, the weapon grabbing into Maka's long black trench coat and sobbed into it, "I- I thought that w-was just a dream!"

The scythe meister knelt down, trying not to disturb the girl crying into her coat, and patted her shoulder, "It's sad, I know, but we need to get out of here. The only way to do that is to kill Medusa, but we don't know where she is, and we need everyone, including you, to stay with us."

"O-okay…" Tsubaki sobbed, "I-I'll t-try."

Maka picked up the crying girl and let her lean onto her body, even though Tsubaki was the taller of the two, and said to the others, "Let's continue the search of the mansion. Who knows how many innocent humans died while we were sleeping."

With everyone nodding, excluding Crona, who was merely listening in, they all headed out the doors, bracing themselves against the harsh wave of insanity. Tsubaki hung in the back of the group, holding her meister's soul, and, without anyone noticing, kissed the blue orb softly, nuzzling it to her neck.

Crona was depended on to show them through the mansion once again, the weapons transformed, save for Tsubaki, and landed in their meister's hands. Crona held out a hand a short distance away from his body and materialized a sleek black sword into his palm, much to the others' amazement.

"Let's go.'' He told them.

Revisiting the floor they were on yesterday, they made their way to the stairs to the next floor, looking away from the dead body of their friend on the floor. Death the Kid walked over to it and picked up BlackStar's body, moving it over to lean against the wall.

"He would have wanted to be moved," Death the Kid said aloud, "And not be forgotten."

He rejoined the others and went up the stairs onto the next level. It consisted of a plain looking corridor, only three large rooms, the doors to them ajar. They all continued walking down the corridor warily, and none of them noticed Tsubaki slip away from the group back down the stairs.

Her deep sapphire eyes stared at BlackStar's body sadly, holding in a breath as she began to head back with her friends.

"Tsubaki…"

Said girl froze with a silent gasp, and swung her body around to face the voice. BlackStar was looking at her, his green eyes droopy and a lazy grin plastered on his face. Tsubaki's eyes filled with happy tears as she ran over to him, skidding on her knees as she dropped to the floor beside him.

"BlackStar!" she cried happily.

He chuckled and slowly lifted an injured arm to his chest, poking a finger at the large gap that should have killed him, hissing when the air brushed against the bloody organs. Tsubaki panicked and reached a hand out to stop him, smacking his hand away from the large wound.

"Don't do that!" she scolded, "It will only hurt you worse!"

The ninja closed his eyes and smiled up at the ceiling, "Heh, you would be one to say that."

Tsubaki gave a wobbly smile, "Yes."

BlackStar tried to stand up from the ground by pushing himself up, ignoring how some of his intestines were beginning to seep from the hole in his torso. Tsubaki was sobbing in relief as she held on to his waist to keep him steady.

"Tsubaki…?" BlackStar asked.

Her sapphire eyes looked at him with warmth, "Yes?"

"Could you… hand me my soul?"

With a blink, Tsubaki looked back down to the blue orb in her other hand, "Of course!"

BlackStar chuckled, "I'm surprised even I have lasted this long, but I won't much longer without that thing back in me."

Tsubaki eagerly shoved his toward him, "Hurry!"

Grinning, BlackStar reached for it with a hungry look on his face, "Thanks…"

42…

"Hey," Maka asked, looking back to Death the Kid, "Do you know where Tsubaki went?"

The shinigami's gold eyes looked around, seeing that Tsubaki was indeed gone, "No, but my guess is that she's with BlackStar's body."

"We have to go get her!" Maka exclaimed, "Who knows if something else will kill her!"

The scythe meister ran back the way they came, shoving aside the three kishin eggs they had killed along the way, her black trench coat floating behind her. Death the Kid followed his friend while Crona followed reluctantly behind the two at a bit slower pace, running wasn't something he was enthusiastic to do.

The three meisters sped down the stairs, Maka's metal boots echoing on the hollow wood of the steps, looking wildly for the Tsubaki on the lower level. They all saw the black-haired girl standing next to what looked like BlackStar, making them all freeze in surprise.

Tsubaki was handing BlackStar his soul, happy tears running down her face and sliding over her smiling lips. BlackStar was grinning as he reached out to grab his soul, staring at it longingly as his hands reached out.

Crona's pale eyes widened, "That's not him."

Death the Kid sped around to look at the swordsman, "What?"

"That's not him." Crona shook his head.

"Maka!" Soul exclaimed, startled as his meister sped toward the two teenagers away from them.

The blonde tromped a foot down and pushed up to raise herself up into the air, speeding in the direction of Tsubaki and "BlackStar", emerald eyes firing. Maka's scythe swooped down between Tsubaki and BlackStar, cutting the connection of the soul between them, slicing off BlackStar's hands at the wrist.

Tsubaki screamed as her meister's hands still remained clutching the other side of the soul, as his body felt to the ground on his knees, eyes glassy. BlackStar arms seemed to disintegrate, sizzling into black ash with a sound like pouring grains of sand, the rest of the body melted into an ashy powder.

Tsubaki watched the scene with horrified eyes, her body trembling as wheezing breath came from her throat. Her hands let go of the soul, leaving it floating in the air with the haunting pair of hands still on it liquefying into a brown slime that slid off the round surface onto the old wood that was the floor.

The girl raised her eyes shakily to Maka, watching the blonde look at her with concern, '_She… killed… him…'_

The chain scythe lunged at the meister angrily, seeing Maka's emerald eyes widen in shock as her best friend attacked her. Tsubaki let out an enraged scream, her voice screeching as her hands wrapped around the other girl's throat, causing Maka to drop Soul with a clatter on the ground as her gloved hands tried to pry away from Tsuabki's grasp.

"You killed him!" Tsubaki cried as she strangled Maka in her hold, shaking the other wildly, "You killed him, you killed him, you killed him!"

"No… Tsubaki…" Maka tried to cough out, "It was… a trick."

Maka's friend ignored the words, "I hate you! You killed him!"

Soul transformed into his human form and pushed up from the ground, breaking the girls apart and pushing Tsubaki away from his meister angrily, glaring at the fuming weapon.

"It was a transforming Kishin!" he yelled as Maka massaged her neck, crying at Tsubaki's behavior, "It was going to take BlackStar's soul then yours! Don't you see the red kishin egg right there?"

Shaking her head, Tsubaki gripped her black hair, eyes blind to the red orb floating above the pile of powder, staring at BlackStar's blue soul instead.

'_It was him…'_ she thought, '_and Maka killed him… I'll kill her… BlackStar wanted us to be powerful, right? Then I will… for him… I'll take all of their souls, and I will become powerful for BlackStar.'_

The others eyes widened as Tsubaki's wheezing breaths became chuckles, her sapphire eyes wild as she slumped to the ground on her knees, head tilted back, arms sprawled on the ground, laughing above her. Patty's bright eyes wavered worriedly in fear for her friend, blonde eyebrows furrowed, feeling Liz clutch onto her hand tightly.

The chain scythe pulled herself from the ground and grabbed onto BlackStar's soul again, wobbling as she walked away from them, holding onto the wall for support, sloppily making her way down the hall. The others were confused but began to follow the girl hurriedly.

Crona stayed behind and didn't follow, not that they'd notice, or even care, and turned his head to look at the speaker up on the wall. Glaring his navy eyes at the intercom, almost seeing the amused smirk on his mother's face as she enjoyed to drama of watching over the other teenagers.

"Are you happy…?" he asked while looking back down onto the floor.

He heard a banging from where the others went and started to go in that direction to join them.

42…

Tsubaki stumbled into an empty room and closed the door behind her, fumbling with the lock blindly, and smiled insanely when it gave the responding click. She heard Maka pounding on the door, screaming at her to open the door.

The chain scythe knew Maka would eventually just break down the door, so she'd better make this quick, Liz and Patty were heard outside as well, begging her to come out with the persuading comments from Soul and Kid.

With a small giggle, Tsubaki's sapphire eyes blankly looked at her meister's soul, the color turning pale as her emotions drained into her madness. Stroking the smooth surface, she raised it up to her mouth, feeling to coolness of it on her lips, and opened them to swallow BlackStar's soul.

Saliva seeped from her mouth and dribbled down to her jaw as her head tilted back to consume the round orb, grinning madly as the soul made its way into her system. The shuddering feeling down her spine was exciting as Tsubaki laughed at her accomplishment.

42…

"Tsubaki!" Maka screamed, pounding at the door with her shoulder.

Finally running at it and breaking the wood off of its hinges with her foot, Maka's eyes widened, along with the others, as she saw her best friend. BlackStar's soul was gone and Tsubaki had saliva running from her mouth and was laughing insanely.

She had fallen into madness.

"… it feels… so good…" Tsubaki told them airily as she turned to face them with her crazed look, "…the power…"

**42….**

**A/N: Hm… I like writing this… the only reason I actually finished this chapter was because I was feeling hyper, so I out it into this writing. Anyways… please review, it would be super duper appreciated. If you don't have an account, I allow anonymous, so REVIEW~! I want to know whether my story sucks or not D=**


	5. Madness, Death?

**A/N: you know… I don't like the title of this fan fiction, I just slapped it on because I had no luck with anything else XP If any of you would be kind enough, put suggestions in the reviews? I'm just not too fond of the name. Anyways… those of you who read this, I thank you all. **

**Oh, and to those of you who like to get in the mood of this chapter, Not Tomorrow (find a long version if you can) from Silent Hill is a really good song to read to on this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: No… I don't own anything, does it look like it?**

**42…**

Chapter 5:

The Madness of Tsubaki, Will her Death be Next?

"Ts-tsubaki…?" Maka asked.

The girl's head turned toward the blonde slowly, as if just realizing she was there, "Oh… hello, Maka."

Maka tried to reach a hand out to the ninja weapon, but Soul held her back, saying that it was too dangerous. Patty tried to push her way through the others, shoving aside Kid to be able to see, noting that the Japanese descendent was pushing up from the ground and shakily going to the other side of the small room.

Tsubaki rummaged through the several cardboard boxes that were pressed against the wall, letting snakes and mice escape from their imprisonment, obviously looking for something. Liquid chemicals were spilt across the floor and soaked the skin at Tsubaki's hands and wrists, but the girl continued to handle what she was going for.

She pulled out a dagger, hidden away among the traps, and stumbled toward the others. Maka broke away from Soul's restraint and went toward Tsubaki, despite the outbursts of her other friends. The blonde took Tsubaki's shoulders and shook them mildly, the girl limp like a rag doll in her grasp.

"Tsubaki!" Maka exclaimed, "Please! Snap out of it!"

The chain scythe stared at her blankly with glassy sapphire eyes, "…but you killed him…"

Maka's forest green eyes blinked in confusion, "Wha-?"

Tsubaki thrust the dagger into Maka's stomach, making the blonde's green eyes widen, and cause her to cough. Maka stumbled back, clutching the dagger as she coughed while Tsubaki merely watched. The ninja weapon snatched back the dagger from Maka's insides, and the meister fell to her knees with blood trailing down her lip. The scythe technician whimpered and a high pitched groan came from her as her wide green her eyes pooled with tears,

"Maka!" Those at the doorway all exclaimed and rushed foreword, trying to aid the blonde.

Tsubaki slipped away, but was blocked at the exit by a sleek black sword being stretched in front of her, barricading the doorway. Crona's pale eyes seeped into hers, both of their eyes were equally pale, the darkness of the original blues washing into a gray, dark circles highlighting the sick appearance in both of them.

Even in her madness, Tsubaki knew that Crona was just as insane as she was at the moment, perhaps even more. Crona moved his powder like eyes to his black sword, twisting the edge into the wood of the opposite doorframe, his pale hand gripped around the gray handle of the spiked weapon calmly.

"Don't leave right now," he mumbled, "your friends will miss you."

Pushing the sword away with her palm, Tsubaki began to make her way out of the room, her tolerance was gone with being ordered. Crona watched her walk away calmly, following the girl as she loosely held the bloody dagger in her hands, the blood that was Maka's. The chemicals that soaked her hand were eating away at the skin, leaving out raw flesh to the air.

Crona caught up with the girl, staying a few feet behind, staring sadly at the bloodied dagger "I may not know much about all of you, but… please… you can push against madness if you try."

Tsubaki turned back to him, "I thought you said that once you fell in, it was over…"

"You aren't completely swallowed yet," Crona explained, "You can still fight back."

The swordsman saw the girl's wounded hands clench into fists, the dagger shaking uncontrollably, "I don't care… Maka… Maka… killed BlackStar, and I can't forgive that…"

"But that wasn't BlackStar." Crona tried to assure her, "It was a kishin."

Tsubaki's paled blue eyes sparked into sapphire flames, spinning around to Crona with fury, black hair swooping around her body wildly, legs spread apart in a fighting stance with the dagger glinting in her acid eaten hand, "Are you saying that BlackStar was a demon! ?"

The girl sped toward him furiously, "He isn't! He wasn't!"

Crona's pale eyes widened as Tsubaki rushed at him, dagger poised high to stab him, the knife went into his already injured shoulder, the cut opening again and spurting out black blood.

Tsubaki continued to stab at his chest and neck, "He wasn't, he wasn't! BlackStar was good! Just because he was from the Star clan! Just underSTAND!"

With the emphasized word, Tsubaki's voice screeched in a high pitch, echoing through the open corridor. Crona's powder eyes had sobered into a navy blue as his blood was sprayed, falling onto his knees, the boy put a hand to the pouring gashes, sword clattering on the floor as he scratched at the wood. Tsubaki kicked at his torso, causing the swordsman to grunt out a yelp.

The black blood hardened, saving Crona from instant death from all of the blood loss, his dark navy eyes looked up sadly at Tsubaki. She was raising the dagger to strike at him fatally, it would kill him off quickly. Tsubaki knew he wouldn't do anything to attack her, his sword was beside him, but he awaited his death, the boy didn't want to kill her.

Crona heard pounding footsteps, the others had heard Tsubaki's scream, and came rushing to see what happened, panicking when they saw Crona was gone. They had thought he was killing her, when it was, surprisingly, the other way around.

"Crona!" Maka shouted frantically.

The blonde was being dragged by Death the Kid and Soul, arms around both of their shoulders. She tried to run toward them by herself, but she winced and cried as she saw Tsubaki bring down the knife. Liz and Patty rushed toward the two teenagers, trying to prevent death, even though they were meters apart. Everyone's eyes widened and tried to shut, but couldn't, as they did not want to witness Medusa's child's death.

Crona's navy eyes paled as the red stained blade came toward him, but he heard a frantic shout behind him in a mere second that saved his life.

"Kill her!"

Maka screamed it with tears running down her face, vocal cords nearly breaking from the desperate intensity. Kid and Soul nearly dropped her in shock at the blonde's two words, and saw Maka sobbing in angst as she watched, teeth clenched and forest eyes drowned in tears, Crona's next actions.

The swordsman's navy eyes flashed regrettably, but whispered, "Bloody Needle…"

Black spiked pillars shot up from the ground, the blood of his that was spilt, hardened into needles that stabbed through Tsubaki's body. The bright red blood mixed with the black on the ground, and drops like tears trailing along the pillared spikes, creating puddles of crimson.

The girl's expression was one of curious surprise, her maddened eyes cooling down as the last ripples of life waved through her slowly. Red blood dripped slowly across her body in trails, falling onto the floor with rhythmic drips.

Maka forced her way closer, falling down in front of Tsubaki, and looking up at the girl with agonizingly painful eyes. Tsubaki's death tight grip on the dagger relaxed, the blooded weapon hanging at her fingers, her sapphire eyes were calm and sane, they filled with sad tears.

The weapon smiled ruefully at her best friend, Tsubaki's tears plopped onto the ground continually even as she smiled. Maka raised a gloved hand to the ninja weapon shakily, sobs quietly building in her throat.

"Tsubaki…?" Maka's tears overflowed onto her cheeks.

Said girl gave an apologetic beam, "I'm sorry…"

Tsubaki's sapphire eyes drained of color and life, the warm glow fading as the gaze rested on Maka. The dagger loosened in the corpse's acid eaten hand and slipped from the body's grasp, clattering onto the floor loudly. The clank of the metal split the horribly thick silence, leaving an even deadlier quiet behind.

Suddenly, a soft static was heard from above, the quiet voice wafting around the teenagers. Nobody looked at the intercom as Medusa's feigned sweetness calmly swam in her words.

"The one who was insane is dead now… but none of you remembered my rules did you?"

Everybody tensed. They had forgotten about the rules, Medusa hadn't given the clues. Was she going to kill them?

"I suppose I will allow it just once…"

Click.

42…

**A/N: Erm… pretty sad chapter, in my opinion anyways. I liked writing it though, t'was very emotional. Anyways, please review, it would be greatly appreciated, 'cause it I don't, my ego goes down. D=**


	6. The Heated Debate

**A/N: Ok, so it took me a little while to update this, but it's up! Thank you to all of those who read this, even to those that don't review ^^**

**Responses to Reviews:**

**KittyAttack: The 42 is a number used often is Soul Eater pictures, it refers to Shinigami's number (42-42-564) which means die, die, kill. So my divider (42) is a reference to the Japanese word for die (shi-ni). =3**

**Webidolchiu94: OoO that's a good title! I'll use that! All credit will belong to you, I'll rename it next update~ ^^**

**Noodle-Chan: No, Crona didn't die. =3**

**Disclaimer: No, I don't own Soul Eater, Crona would have been in the recent manga chapters already by this time (does anybody know when the next one's supposed to come out?)**

**42…**

Chapter 6:

A Heated Debate Between Death the Kid and Maka, but What About?

"Here… let me help you." Soul offered, picking up a quietly sobbing Maka from the ground.

The scythe technician didn't respond, so the white-haired boy lifted his meister from the ground. Maka was limp and he could move her like a rag doll, her cream blonde pigtails hung in the air as her head kept down. Kid was trying to help a shaking Liz from fainting, and Patty was silent, standing like an unnoticed statue, making no comment.

Crona was huddled in a small ball next to Tsubaki's body; the blood spikes had slowly melted into liquid- not suddenly so the ninja weapon wouldn't crash to the ground- so she was lying on the dark gray wood of the floor. The swordsman had attempted to sit the girl up, to prop her on the wall beside him, but Death the Kid had objected and ordered him to just leave the body where it was for the moment. So Crona was merely next to the corpse, looking at it ruefully, feeling guilty and alone as he always did, clutching the fabric at his shins.

Maka drooped over to Death the Kid and looked at him sadly with her deep forest eyes, getting a pitying glace back from the shinigami, his gold eyes fallen and with an anger burning in the background. Liz was choking back her sobs noisily, having a grave Patty pat her back with a dead rhythm, eyes hidden behind her sun colored bangs.

Kid asked Maka quietly as to what they should do with Tsubaki's body, BlackStar's was still laying were it was, unharmed and untouched. The blonde muttered that both of the bodies should be properly given a resting place together, where no one should see them.

"Medusa did say to hide them though," Kid threw in, causing both Maka and Soul to look at him oddly, "Do you suppose we should listen?"

"I think it would be the smartest thing to do," Soul replied glumly, "I don't feel anyone else here wants to die…"

Death the Kid nodded, "We'll make sure to put them both it appropriate areas though, even if it does have to be hidden for… other players…"

Maka's emerald eyes wavered, "…Maybe… that would be the best idea…"

The scythe technician touched the deep throbbing wound at her stomach delicately, wincing at the contact, only to look away in embarrassment when Soul scolded her for it.

"Don't touch it, you idiot," he grumbled, "it'll make it worse, I don't want to more hurt."

Maka met eyes with Soul guiltily, "I'm sorry, Soul."

Kid glanced down sorrowfully at the pained blonde hanging onto her partner's shoulders, "Maka… I'm truly sorry."

"Huh…?" the girl looked at him with curious eyes, but darkened, "It was my fault, don't apologize to me, you should be sad for Tsubaki."

Death the Kid's catlike eyes narrowed, "It wasn't your fault, don't blame yourself."

"I was the one who killed that Kishin egg!" Maka exclaimed, "I should have let her see it wasn't BlackStar… I should have handled things differently, I screwed up."

The shinigami's yellow eyes sparked angrily, "Don't fault yourself! Blame the witch's child over there!"

Crona lifted his eyes at the label and asked wearily, "…What?"

Maka blinked toward the meek boy sitting sadly across the width of the hall than glanced back to the infuriated shinigami, "What do you mean? Don't put it on Crona, he's not responsible for this!"

"Yes he is!" Kid objected, "Had he not tried to stop Tsubaki, nothing would have happened!"

The scythe technician pushed away from Soul's restraint, growling at Death's son in front of her, "Crona's done nothing wrong!"

"Of course he has, he's the son of a witch!"

"I don't care! He hasn't done anything! It was my fault!"

Death the kid had to stop himself from shaking the other meister, "Tsubaki shouldn't have lost her life!"

Tears were streaming out of Maka's eyes once again that day, "She was insane, Crona would have died!

"He deserves to die, our friend is gone, and it's all because of that _thing_!"

"Shut up! You don't understand that Crona isn't a threat to us!"

Liz and Patty were listening to the two argue, the teenagers exclaiming their opinions about Medusa's son, Crona himself was silent in watching the two, ignoring their words.

Death the Kid looked at Soul, "Soul, do you not agree that the witch's son should be disposed of?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm not in this." The scythe responded, "Besides, didn't Medusa just say that we're not supposed to kill each other unless she says?"

The shinigami gritted his teeth, "We don't have to kill him ourselves."

Soul began discussing it with Kid, Liz and Patty joining in as well, wondering what to do with Crona, since none other than Maka wished for the meek boy to live. Liz was starting to feel angry, emotions beginning to over power her, that sword boy was the reason one of her best friends had to die, maybe they _should _execute him.

Maka wasn't taking part of the others discussing whether or not to kill the thin boy, they were talking calmly, in low voices, as if she and Crona weren't there within ear reach. Crona was fine that they were debating on killing him, he really didn't care anymore, he didn't want to kill; maybe it would release him from his stress and misery.

"It _is _his fault isn't it?" Liz asked in a throaty voice, glaring her ocean blue eyes toward him, "Tsubaki would have been able to fight against the madness, I'm sure of it! B-but _he_ had to push her over the edge."

Liz's glaring eyes narrowed and twitched in anger, Maka spoke up quietly, "Stop blaming him, he's done nothing, I'm the one that told him to kill her, remember?"

"Yes, but I bet he did something to make you say it." Kid said, "Who knows, maybe he has that capability."

Liz was breathing in ragged breaths and stormed toward the boy on the opposite side of the hall, seeing that the swordsman's eyes and expression remained emotionless, the weary lines under his eyes making him seem even more depressed. The pistol screamed and aimed kick at him, as he was on the ground, and swung her leg swiftly, a whistling sound made through the air as she punted at him,

The weapon's foot made contact with Crona's rib cage, making the boy yelp audibly in mixture with a suck in of his breath. Crona grabbed his side and looked up at Liz with pained eyes, still saying nothing, but shaky breaths coming from his mouth as he felt a bruise forming at his torso.

"It your fault." She screamed at him, brunette blond hair flying around her body wildly as she clenched a fist.

Maka's green eyes widened, "Stop, Liz!"

Liz flung around to glare at Maka, "Shut up! You seem to care about him, someone we've just met and the kid of a witch, and not for Tsubaki, someone who's been your best friend for years!"

The scythe meister made no reply, but bit on her lip, Soul holding her back by the shoulders. Liz looked down at the shaking boy below her, disgusted that he was sitting so close to her friend's diseased body. Crona was avoiding looking at her, lavender hair hanging over his eyes, his thin body trembling, shuddering breaths low.

"It's your fault…" Liz muttered, feeling the silent rooting Kid was thinking behind her, the wide curious eyes of her sister, the distressed tears of Maka, and the serious and concerned emotions of Soul for his meister.

Crona slowly stood up wobbly, hanging onto the side of his rib where Liz had kicked, turning his head to the side, still looking at the ground, still and silent. The pistol grinded her teeth and readied her fist to punch the swordsman, bringing it back to swing, but stopped when the boy lifted a hand to his face.

The witch's son held his hand to cover his eyes, tears slipping from his cheeks onto the floor, the impact making a small splash. Crona sobbed, gritting his teeth, as he sunk onto the wall close behind him, shaking nonstop, unintelligible whispers coming from him. Everyone watched him, some curiously, some just waiting, as the witch's son cried.

"…ry…" was heard from him, and they strained their ears to try to know what the boy was saying, "…sorry… I'm sorry…"

Crona was sobbing out apologies, his tears were still falling and he began to hiccup, "I'm s-sorry…"

The boy turned and ran from them down the hall, leaving the others to gather that the witch's son was being eaten away by guilt and regret. Crona seemed to disappear, his footsteps not heard anymore, silence remaining among the group of teenagers.

42…

"Why did you have to do that?" Maka asked wearily to Liz.

Liz kept her glare on the ground, stroking the dagger that Tsubaki used, as she had picked it up as memento, "Tsubaki was one of my best friends, one of our best friends, and you cared more about that boy than her."

Maka had no more tears to cry, her body was ridded of all the water that was given to be able, "Tsubaki was in insanity, it couldn't be helped. I couldn't just let him die…"

"Listen to yourself!" Liz shouted, eyes clenched shut as she kept her head down, grip on the dagger tightening, "Even I agree with Kid, he's the son of a witch, and Tsubaki should have lived, not him!"

The scythe technician looked around her, her friends all had somber looks on their faces, Liz angry, wearily agreeing with the elder pistol. Patty walked over to her sister and hugged the elder's arm, giving a sad glance to the scythe meister. Maka looked up at Soul, who was avoiding eye contact with her, then toward Kid.

"None of you care…" she whispered.

Her fist clenched, the fabric of her glove stretching tight over her knuckles, "Fine. You may not care, but I'm going to find Crona."

Soul grabbed her shoulder, "Wait, Maka, you can't just be concerned over a random person you've only known for-"

"I'm looking for him!" she yelled at him, green eyes burning into his crimson, "Because I care! Crona's a great person, you're just all prejudice!"

Maka ran away from the others, heading down the black hallway that she saw Crona go, clutching the scabbing wound in her stomach with her bloodstained glove, trying to use her soul perception to find the swordsman. Since she wasn't at all familiar with the boy's wavelength, trying to locate him was difficult, and she relied on her gut- no pun intended, as she was clutching it- to tell her where she should head.

Winding through the maze of dark corridors, Maka suddenly was jolted with a wavelength near by. Taking it as Crona, the scythe technician went toward it with a relieved breath, jogging quickly it the direction. Maka slowed down as she felt that she was nearing what she felt was the swordsman, trying to have her emerald eyes adjust to the pitch darkness, running her free hand along the walls to guide her.

Soft sobs were heard deeper in, making the blonde excited, and making her features calm into a thoughtful expression. It was Crona no doubt now, and Maka neared him slowly, not wanting to panic the swordsman in his crying.

The boy heard the muted footsteps of the metal padding on Maka's boots nearing him, he ignored the other person and tried to ignore the fact that she was coming closer. But when the blonde finally made out his dim shadow in the darkness, pressed against the corner of two walls, she lowered herself and sat down as well.

Crona sniffed and lifted his head slightly, looking to the side enough to see Maka staring ahead, a small smile was made out even in the dark lighting. Maka was sitting in a nearly identical position of Crona's, though her arms were loosely wrapped at her shins and had a more relaxed demeanor, her body wasn't tightly crushed into a ball.

"I was kind of worried…" she informed softly, her voice didn't cut harshly through the silence, but seemed to mix in with it, the words pleasantly quiet.

The swordsman blinked his powder eyes, "… why… do you care… about me?"

"Hm?" Maka asked, then thought of how to answer, "Well… it's just that… your wavelength isn't like what one would expect from a witch's child, it's really sweet… but it's kind of jumbled up."

Crona's gray eyes settled into a darker color and he cradled his head in the gap between his knees on the thin pillow of his dress, "Oh…"

Maka smiled, "We just need to fix you up, and you'll be far better off without Medusa."

"W-we…?" Crona asked wearily.

The blonde's green eyes were visibly excited in the dimness, "Of course, once everyone realizes that you aren't bad, we'll all want to be your friends!"

The swordsman blinked curiously and looked at the girl beside him with his wide blue eyes, "Friends…?"

"You've never had a friend before?' Maka asked.

With an intake of breath, Crona avoided her eyes, head still in her direction though, and shook his head, "No…"

Maka blinked and then gave a small smile, "Well then, would you like to become my friend?"

"What?" the swordsman asked, completely taken aback by the blonde's question, wondering if he had misheard.

"Would you like to become my friend?" she repeated, "Since you've never had one, I could be your first."

Shakily, the boy nodded a shy yes, curling up into a tighter ball in his embarrassment, but Maka scooted closer to him and wrapped an arm around his thin shoulders. This caused Crona to stiffen, but he finally relaxed after a minute or two, finally accepting that the contact wouldn't harm him, and felt like he enjoyed the foreign kindness, just like the night before, with the warm feeling.

Maka eyed the dried wounds one Crona's upper body with concerned eyes, the gashes from Tsubaki's dagger, the black blood had dried, but nonetheless Maka cared. She fingered one of the hardened cuts, making Crona jump with a start, and the dark crust contrasted with her glove.

"I think they went this way." A voice was heard through the echoes of the halls.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm not going to be completely correct, Soul, my perception isn't as good as Maka's."

Death the Kid and Soul were nearing where Maka and Crona were, arguing over Kid's soul perception abilities, not really concentrating on finding the two anymore. Maka stood up and began to make her way down the hall to meet with her other friends, gesturing for Crona to follow her.

The boy hesitated a bit, but decided it was most likely the best choice to follow what the blonde told him to do, she had after all given him the permission to kill her best friend in order for himself to survive. So Crona followed Maka , keeping several feet behind her in fear, a little anxious over seeing the other teenagers, the ones that wanted him dead.

"Ah, look, there's Maka." Death the Kid pointed her out to the white haired weapon by his side.

Soul grunted and looked at his meister come up to them with a small grin on her face. The scythe found it suspicious and his crimson eyes narrowed as he saw the witch's son follow shortly behind.

"Why so happy?" he asked.

Maka stuck her tongue out at him, "Because maybe I gave Crona a new friend."

Death the Kid clenched his hands, "How can you be smiling? One of your best friends just died because of that one behind you, and you made friends with him! And happily as if you've accomplished something wonderful!"

"Because I have done something wonderful!" Maka shouted back, "You guys just don't realize that Crona's really a nice person!"  
"What evidence do you have to prove that?" Kid challenged.

Maka pouted, "I just know that Crona isn't someone who should deserve this treatment! If you would just accept him-"

"No, Maka." Death the Kid told her gravely, "he should be dead by now, from my father's orders, he's a kishin egg. He killed out friend as well."

"But I'm the one that told him to!" Maka exclaimed.

"This is true." Kid said, "But I would rather not kill you along with him."

"But, Kid-"

"Maka," Soul called her, "We all agree with him, your vote is outnumbered."

The scythe technician bit her lip in order to try to stop from screaming, Crona scooted away from his protection behind Maka, facing the other teenagers with a frightened expression. He had his fists wrapped in the cloth of his dress, nervously squirming.

Crona kept his eyes away, but began to speak, "Y-you can kill me if you want… but Medusa wouldn't l-like it very much."

Death the Kid locked his harsh eyes on the swordsman, "We never said that it would be _us_ killing you."

The boy's eyes pale blue eyes widened, even more scared than before, "W-what?"

"Will you stop!" Maka yelled, "This has gone too far, what will you gain from killing him?"

"We'll feel better." Soul answered nonchalantly.

Maka's green eyes narrowed, "After killing an innocent person?"

"Innocent?" Liz questioned the adjective the scythe technician used to describe the witch's son.

Patty piped up, "W-well, I kind of agree with Maka."

Everyone looked toward the young blonde that was standing beside her sister, the energetic girl somber. Death the Kid narrowed his eyes at his weapon with a questioning look, Liz was thinking over her sister's words, not really grasping them, Soul raised an eyebrow, Maka looked hopeful, and Crona was just scared of everyone.

"What do you mean?" Kid asked.

Patty shuffled, "I mean, he really didn't do anything wrong, and he's been nice to us this whole time."

Liz's ocean-like eyes widened, "But he killed Tsubaki!"

"I agree with Maka!" Patty exclaimed, "She was in insanity and he would have died!"

Liz looked like she had been horribly betrayed, "Patty…"

Patty avoided her sister's eyes, playing with the edges of her red cut off at the stomach and shoulders turtleneck, "I think that he should live…"

Her sister's eyes flashed, "Patty, snap out of it, I bet he's using one of his witch abilities to mess with your mind!"

"He's not!" Patty defended, "This is really my opinion!"

Liz turned to Crona angrily, "You're doing something to her, aren't you?"

The swordsman's eyes widened innocently, "What? No! I-I'm n-not doing anything, I-I swear!"

Liz still had Tsubaki's dagger in her hand, her hand tightened around it, and charged toward Crona. The swordsman's eyes widened even larger as he saw his fate coming towards him, blade still coated in a mix of black and red blood. Patty rushed forward and skidded in front of Crona, blocking her sister from thrusting the dagger into him.

Angered, Liz shouted, "So you are doing something to her!"

The pistol shoved her sister out of the way, making the younger ram into a wall audibly, hat flying of her head onto the floor. The wood of the wall gave away with a large crack that split across at a large width, and Patty fell into the large hole into the darkness of the insides.

Liz froze as her sister gave a yelp falling down, and the young blonde was nowhere seen, the sound of the body falling was heard for a few seconds before it came to an abrupt stop with a harsh wet sound. Death the Kid rushed over to the larger gap in the wall, holding onto the edges of the hole as he looked down into the abyss of it.

Maka, Soul, and Liz rushed over to look as well, squinting into the darkness to try and see where Patty was. They all gasped as their eyes adjusted, seeing that the energetic blonde was looking up at them from four meters away with glassy eyes.

Patty's body was laid out oddly on the stakes that drove though her body, the three sharp points ripped through her right arm, one on her left arm, two in her left leg, and one was sticking out oddly from her stomach. Blood was sprayed across her body from the sudden impact onto the jagged spears of wood, dotting blotches of crimson across her face.

The fact that most of her body was bare due to her revealing clothing, made the sight all the more gruesome, with the stick jutting out from her stomach, the skin that stuck onto the wood making a mountain like slope of raw flesh. The one of the two in her leg shot right through the knee joint, making it turn at an odd angle that shouldn't be natural.

Liz breathed in a weak gasp, putting a hand to her mouth as tears flooded from her eyes like a river down her cheeks, and fell on her knees to the ground. Shivering, Liz began to cry with screams of agony, shaking her head in denial.

Crona, who was standing where he had been, was frozen. He already knew what piece of terror Patty had fallen into, and already there was a mental image inside his head, there wasn't a need to make him any guiltier by seeing the true damage. The girl had tried to protect him from her sister, even without knowing him at all, or even having an unknown bond like Maka.

That was two people now he had killed unintentionally, was he fated to kill? Is that why this was happening, why Medusa put him with these people? Because he was a tool of murder?

Liz was still crying, she had crawled over to where he was, gripping the fabric of his dress at his thigh, causing the swordsman to cry out in shock. The pistol looked up at him pained blue eyes filled with tears, and pulled on the cloth more.

"Why?" she asked, voice trembling, "Why hasn't Medusa k-killed m-me?"

Crona's pale eyes were confused, "W-what do you mean?"

The grip on his dress got harder as Liz's eyebrows knotted together, "I k-killed P-patty… shouldn't I be d-dead?"

Crona remained silent as he listened to the words inside his mind float together, grasping at their meaning, waiting for the new information making its way to him.

"Answer me!" Liz cried, hands shaking on the fabric of his thigh.

"She's telling me…" Crona replied, everyone understood he was referring to Medusa.

Liz looked up at him, the one she felt she hated, waiting for her answer.

Crona glazed his eyes over everyone, then settled them on the floor, away from Liz, "There are no more rules…"

Maka's green eyes trembled, "What do you mean?"

"Rules always put a damper on games she says," Crona responded, "makes them less interesting… without rules, games are far more fun… and Medusa wants this game to be the most fun she's ever seen."

**42…**

**A/N: Small notice: Next update, this story will be called _Labyrinth of Insanity, Medusa's Dollhouse,_ great thanks to Webidolchiu94 for suggesting it. Please review, it would be greatly appreciated.**


	7. Don't Leave Me Behind Here

**A/N: Yay, this story has a different title now~!**

**Disclaimer: I Don't Own Soul Eater, title blongs to webidolchiu94**

**42…. **

Chapter 7:

Don't Leave Me behind Here, Save Me!

I heard the voices above me were muffled, the sobbing cries were audible too, Liz the loudest. It was so dark down here, it was almost scary, the echoing of the voices sounded empty in the stale air of this dark void. The blood was running across my body like hot steaming water, the wet sounds that it made when I tried to move.

The pain was intense, but all of my nerves seemed to be shocked numb, so it was only when I tried to move did the searing sting come. These stakes scared me; they were so sharp, sticking out of my body so harshly. I could see the large stick protruding from my stomach, making me scared for my well-being. What would Liz do if I died?

She was up there, she was asking somebody- who though? - about why she wasn't dead yet. Why would she be dead? Did Liz do something? But she's talking about killing me, she believes that she killed me. I want to tell her that I'm still here, but how can I?

Another person answered her, I didn't recognize it very easily, but it could have only been that one boy that I tried to save. Crona, wasn't it? His voice was guilty almost. Please, everyone, notice that I'm still here! My eyes swiveled, trying to find a way to get out of this damned place.

Kid was talking now, but I couldn't hear the words, speak up louder Kid, I can't hear you. Now Maka was taking her turn, her voice was angry, she was yelling at Kid, the words weren't easy for me to hear either. Soul was trying to calm her down now, by the sound of his voice, he getting impatient with holding back his emotions.

This is too much, I hate this place, not knowing what everyone was saying, they all thought I was dead, but that's not it! I felt blood slip down my cheek with my grimace, lips set angrily. At least one of the stakes didn't go through my head, I would be gone for sure, but already I was on holding on by a hair. I knew that I was in no place to say that I was fine, even I was aware that I would die after a while from blood loss.

They need to get me out before that, I don't want to die like this. Especially with my last look at my sister being one of irritation and hate toward me, that was painful. I would like to have more time with her, my role model, why couldn't I be strong like her? Always being modest, saying that she was weak. She's my big sister, of course she's strong! All big sisters are, aren't they?

Damn this place, it's time to be serious, not think, even though I never get enough alone time to do that. At least I was able to be carefree when I was able, no one's suspicions were ever raised when I was happy like that. Everyone was left with impressions of happy-go-lucky, which I am! But, maybe it was a good idea to keep shoving away the grave thoughts away from my head.

Living in Brooklyn made me think maturely, though I never showed it, with bloodlust hidden within. No one saw that, not even big sis. Now though, maybe, had I spoken up when they were debating over that Crona that first time after Tsubaki was killed, it would've settled out. I could have stopped it then, but I didn't, now here I was.

I would have sighed, but the breath was knocked out of me, I could barely keep up the panting that I was doing. The voices up there were starting to soften, wait, no, they were going away. Getting farther, wait, no, stop, please! Don't leave me! I'm still alive! I am!

The footsteps were leaving too, going away. No, no, no, no, no, NO! YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME HERE! Come back, come back, COME BACK! Tears were starting to pool at my eyes, running down my emotionless face. I want to get out of here, these stakes were going to keep me rotting here if they don't come to get me.

I tried to twitch my fingers of my right hand, but it hurt as an electric like shock speed up the tendons of my limb. I stopped, it was too much hurt, I couldn't get out from here on my own. No! I could! Just be strong like big sis!

Clenching my teeth together, I tried to lift up my arm out of the wooden spear, the pain hit like my limb was being sawed off from my socket, but I kept going, small cried whimpers coming from me. I struggled harder, trying to move my leg up too, and the pain hit like a train. I tried to squirm at my torso, attempting to worm my stomach out of the stake, the insides of my body slipping around the stick, raw flesh burning against the wood.

I thrashed angrily, making the wood rattle underneath me harshly, but the action made all of my wound rip open more, I didn't care! I thrashed more shredding my skin apart in attempt to get out.

Suddenly, all of my nerves woke up, sensing the pain of this situation, crashing against me. My brain seemed to overload with the information of all this hurt and damage. My back was arching at the intense jolts, my chest burning, heart ready to explode with this pain.

The inside of my chest was twisting with flames like hell, and my throat felt raw as I felt blood rushing from it, out my throat, almost drowning myself in my position. The liquid poured out down my face and I splashed it all out by thrashing even more, causing even more horrifying spikes of lighting through my body.

My nerves were even more awake, and my thrashing caused one of the strong thick stakes to break inside of my stomach, setting at an angle so my wound tore open, leaving blood to pour out from the stretched out skin.

The pain was too much as the sharp edges of the broken wood shredded at my innards, I could feel it dragging out one of my organs.

So I screamed, spraining my vocal cords in the process.

**42…**

**A/N: Can you guess whose point of view this is? You'll get a virtual taco if you guess right ^^**

**Anyways, yay early update! Please Review?**


	8. Patty

**A/N: Yay! Virtual tacos for everybody~! BTW I'm going to be putting the fan fiction in the Crona & Maka category, since they're pretty much the characters I linger on the most. -.-'**

**Me and my stupid fangirlism for Crona…**

**Responses to Reviews:**

**Webidolchiu: I really like your title, it was super creative and awesome, it has just the right amount of… feel to it as I would have wanted it =3**

**Kara: Virtual tacos~! w**

**Blumarshin: You'll just have to wait and see. Bwahahahaha~!**

**Twilight: No worries, writing fan fictions is my life. I'm just really lazy about it *sweatdrop***

**XxNeonLawlietxX: Don't worry, just take your time =3**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater, title belongs to webidolchiu94.**

**42…**

Chapter 8:

Patty

"What was that?" Liz asked in a panicked voice.

"It sounded like a scream." Death the Kid answered, his golden eyes narrowing.

"We need to go check it out." Maka said.

Soul scowled, "They can go check, you need to stay here and wait for them."

Maka was still in a bad condition with her wound, Soul had her arm wrapped around his shoulders, and he was supporting her by holding onto her waist, but the technician kept saying that she was fine. She was capable of doing things-excluding major fast movements-but Soul wouldn't have it, he didn't want his meister to strain herself.

The blonde, of course, glared at him, "No, I'm coming along, you're not stopping me."

Soul's crimson eyes narrowed angrily. "You're hurt, you're not supposed to move around."

"I don't care!" Maka told him, "I'm going!"

"No you're not!"

Death the Kid got tired of watching them quarrel and growled, "We're all going! Come on! We need to see what that was."

They all agreed with the shinigami and followed behind him as he went in the direction they came from. Everyone was going at a brisk jog, save for Maka, who was trying to run and was being held back by a certain scythe.

Liz was the one who rushed the fastest, rushing past everybody, clutching Patty's hat to her chest, and Tsubaki's dagger in her other hand, both of the objects mementos. The pistol swung her head around, the scream had continued, echoing loudly throughout the hallways.

With desperation, Liz followed the noise to where Patty had fallen, the scream vibrating across the wood walls from inside of the large gap. The others caught up with the girl, wincing at the discordant shrieks, looking toward the dark depths of the hole.

Liz, fighting away at her fears, nervously peered inside of where the loud painful screeches were coming from, gasping to find that it was Patty who was making the noise. The blonde was thrashing around on the wooden stakes, the blood was getting darker on the lightly colored beige of the torture device she was stuck in.

Maka reached the scene, emerald eyes widening at the sight, gloved hands clenching in a painful grip around Soul's wrist. Death the Kid looked like he was about to vomit, wincing at how his weapon was in such pain, and the horrid detail of it all was too much to bear. Crona was clutching his head, the deafening scream pulling at his insanity, making his pupils constrict into small slits in his powder blue eyes; he started to groan, but over the agonized shrieks from Patty, he could not be heard.

Liz rose her leg to set a foot atop the edges of the hole, throwing aside the things in her hands, and began to lower herself into the gap. Maka reacted quickly, and caught at the girl's wrist, pulling her back up.

"What are you doing?"

"I have to get her!" Liz shouted.

Patty's scream seemed to hush, long squeals of agony that rumbled in her throat replacing them; the wounded blonde whimpered several times, like a puppy that was starving out in the cold, the whines were mixed with hot tears running on her face.

"S-sis…? She choked out.

Liz's eyes widened, "P-patty?"

The elder sister yanked her hand from Maka's grasp and slid down the black wall down ten feet to the bottom, landing on her feet, eyeing the stakes that now reached up to her chest. Liz weaved through the spaces between the stakes, making her way toward her sister, intent on keeping Patty alive.

With tears streaming down her face, Liz finally reached her sister, hearing small whimpers coming from the younger. Everyone was watching Liz, praying that Patty would be able to be saved and keep living; Liz would be traumatized if Patty were to die, since it was Patty that always took charge over her sister, she was the brave one, Liz would be nothing without her.

Liz reached out a hand to her sister, watching as Patty's baby blue eyes filled with happy tears at the sight of her big sister coming to save her, "O-onee-chan…"

Patty smiled as Liz choked back her tears and began to inspect her bloodied arm. The elder pistol began to move Patty's arm, causing the younger to hiss slightly, squirming the limb out from the wooden spike. Liz carried on with this on all of Patty's body, lifting up her body from the trap that had captured her, freeing the blonde.

Now all that was left was to get Patty's stomach out, that would free her, after that she would be able to leave, finally get out of this damned pit. Putting a supporting hand on the higher back, Liz pushed up from the bottom, lifting Patty up, finally getting the blonde mostly out from the stake.

Patty leaned onto her sister once she finally was out, crying onto Liz's shoulder, hugging onto her, getting blood smeared on Liz's clean skin. Everyone watching cheered, Maka having happy tears of her own swimming at the edges of her eyes.

Death the Kid asked how they were going to get his weapons out, since it was ten feet to the bottom, it would be hard to get them.

Maka bit on her lip, "Well, we can try to find a rope."

Soul turned to Crona, who was standing back, aloof as usual, "Hey, there any rope around here?"

Crona blinked as he turned his gaze over to the scythe, "I think… There should be some somewhere close by."

"You guys should hurry with finding what you want," Liz called up in a panicked voice, "Patty's wounds are bleeding everywhere."

It was true, the stakes had held in all of the blood, but now it was flowing loosely with nothing to secure it, without it being tended to, Patty would bleed to death. Death the Kid began hurriedly searching for rope to pull up the girls, searching through the boxes that were sloppily scattered throughout the building.

The shinigami quickly was able to find a long cord of rope, sighing in relief when he found that it was long enough to retrieve his weapons. Maka went over and took the rope from Kid, going over to lower it down to Liz and Patty, happy when the girls were able to hold onto it.

"Help me pull them up." Maka said, gesturing for the boys to help her.

Soul positioned himself behind his meister to support her strength, setting his feet solidly onto the ground. Death the Kid stood behind Soul and got a good grip on the rope, wrapping the weave around his hands for extra support. Crona stood far behind, holding onto the rope fearfully, as if he were to be scolded for helping them get the pistols from the pit.

The four of them yanked on the rope, slowly lifting Liz and Patty from the hole, Maka grunted, "Pull harder."

Soul felt the rope burning on his palms, "Damn…"

Liz tried to push Patty farther up the string so that it would be faster to get them up, succeeding in helping up her sister. Death the Kid growled as he used his strength to pull, he would have gone to help Liz and Patty up manually, but if he left, it would just be a disadvantage.

With a regretful feeling stirring in his stomach, Death the Kid looked behind him and told Crona, "Go try and pull them up."

The swordsman had looked terrified when Death the Kid spoke to him, but responded with an agreeing nod. Crona made his way to the gap and leaned over the opening to the hole, seeing the girls were only a short distance away. He offered his hand, and Patty reached for it, grasping onto his arm as he pulled her up with a grunt, letting the blonde hang on his shoulders as she wobbled onto the floor.

It was easier to get Liz out, since she wasn't injured and could support her own weight, Soul grumbled once they were both freed, "Damn, you guys are heavy."

"Shut up!" Liz yelled at him, "You better not be calling Patty and I fat!"

Soul leaned onto the wall with his arms folded behind his head, "Whatever."

Maka glowered at him, "Soul, don't make Liz angry, Patty's hurt, we need to tend to her wounds."

Death the Kid took Patty away from Crona and let her hang onto him instead, Liz narrowed her eyes and told Patty that she could have a piggyback ride. Patty excitedly agreed to Liz's offer, baby blue eyes sparkling, hiking onto her sister's back happily, ignoring the blood still streaming easily out of the holes in her body, restricting her urge to scream again with the pain.

"Where do you insist we take her?" Death the Kid asked.

"We can take her to one of the beds of the rooms in the building," Crona said, "it won't matter if we sleep in the ballroom anymore, it's already filled with the same amount of insanity as everything else is."

Death the Kid nodded at the swordsman's words, "That would be the best idea, a bed would be helpful for Patty's condition."

Patty kept her cheek buried into Liz's hair, calmed by the gentle steps her sister made to not jostle her wildly. They took Patty to the level where the rooms were and went into the closest one that had a bed, Liz setting the blonde on the white mattress, everyone filtering in, crowding around her.

Red bled through the white of the crisp sheets, staining them with Patty's wounds, making the blonde look at the mess guiltily with her innocent bright eyes while Maka began to tear off strips from the cloth. The scythe technician wrapped the strips around Patty's gashes and tied them, hopefully holding the flesh together so that the bleeding flow would stop.

"Do you have anything that would help heal this?" Maka asked toward Crona.

The swordsman blinked, "I don't think so, I could look, but I wouldn't count on Lady Medusa putting anything like that inside this building."

"Well, it's worth a shot." Soul threw in, rubbing his hand behind his head, running the thick white strands through his fingers.

Death the Kid sighed, "I'll look too. Liz and Maka can stay here to look after Patty, Soul can do whatever he feels like."

"I'll go through some stuff too," Soul said, "I shouldn't be useless just sitting here, that's uncool."

With a nod, the shinigami started to leave the room, Soul and Crona following behind him, but Patty said, "Can Crona-kun stay here?"

Everyone raised an eyebrow at her, except for Crona, who just looked curious at the odd question. The young pistol squirmed, wincing at the pain it caused here to move.

"Well, I almost died trying to save Crona-kun, so I want to spend some time with him." Patty explained self-consciously.

"Yes, but we need him to search with us since he knows the area better than we do." Death the Kid told her.

Liz glowered at him, "Shut up, Kid, let Patty have what she wants."

"Fine." The shinigami grumbled.

Soul turned to his meister, "Hey, Maka, while we're looking, do want me to see if there's anything we can do for your stomach?"

The technician examined the wound that was crusting at her torso, most of the blood was dried, and even though she was still hurt, it wasn't as bad. Maka shrugged, "I suppose."

Crona stayed back as Soul and Kid left the room, closing the door behind them softly, letting a hollow echo linger in the quiet room. Liz was petting Patty's hair, ruffling the strands, and Maka was looking ruefully out the magically sealed window that let the late evening sun stream in to light the room with a soft orange and purple glow, even though the situation wasn't suited for such a peaceful setting.

Pulling out the chair from the small table pressed against the opposite side of the bed, Crona sat down near the edge of the bed, staring at the soles of Liz's boots as she was seated on the left side of Patty. Maka stretched out her arms, joints popping audibly, grunting as she tried to loosen her knotted muscles.

The scythe technician rubbed at her tired eyes and turned to Crona, "There's a library a little ways down the hall, right?"

Crona nodded, "Yeah, but you should wait for your weapon to come back, there will be some kishin eggs in there."

Maka's shoulders slumped, then looked at Liz, "Hey, Liz, I can probably wield you right? Can you come with me real quick?"

The pistol looked up at the pleading bookworm, "But…Patty…"

"It'll be just real quick!" Maka begged, "And Crona will be here to watch her!"

This only made the pistol's eyes narrow, "Yeah, but I don't trust him."

Patty spoke up, "Go help Maka-chan, big sis, I'll be fine."

Biting her lip, Liz squeezed her little sister's hand before taking off with an enthusiastic Maka, looking back one more time before the door closed. Crona kept his gaze on the door for a few seconds before returning his vision to the injured blonde laying on the bed.

Patty was smiling faintly as her vision lingered on the door as well, but was brought to attention when Crona spoke, "Your sister is very nice to you."

The young pistol grinned, "Yeah, I love my Onee-chan."

"She's careful about watching you." Crona acknowledged.

Patty looked down to the white tourniquets strapped around her, "Big sis has always looked out for me. Ever since we've been living on the streets."

Crona tilted his head, "You… lived on the streets?"

The girl nodded, "It wasn't until maybe two or three years ago that Kid-kun took us in."

Crona played with his fingers, twiddling them around each other, "What was it like? To live like that… and to be taken it?

Loud gunshots were heard outside, more than likely Maka killing something, but the two teenagers ignored it. Patty's eyes sobered, as she felt sad that her sister was fighting without her, here she lay crippled on this bed that served as a hospital cot.

"It was… painful to live on the streets," Patty started, "But maybe I handled it better because Sis was always there with me. When Kid-kun came and invited us to be his weapons, he was so happy, called us beautiful and everything."

The blonde smiled painfully, "It was really fun. Originally, Sis and I were going to steal all of his money, but… he was just so nice, Kid-kun has always been there for me since then, just like Sis has."

"All of you care about each other," Crona whispered, "Like a big happy family."

"Because we are."

Crona looked up curiously to the pistol's reply, "W-what?"

"We are just like a family, huh?" Patty asked herself, "But friends always stick together, just like their own little family."

"That seems nice…" Crona mumbled sadly.

Patty brightened, "Maka, Liz, Kid, Soul, and I can be your family!"

Crona met eyes slowly with the girl, the other much happier with her sparkling baby blue eyes, "But your meister and sister don't like me, and I don't think Maka's partner does either."

Grinning happily, Patty chirped, "They just don't know you yet! I mean, I almost died, so they're bound to soften up."

"It was my fault you almost died." Crona told her guiltily.

Patty lifted herself from her sleeping-like position to reach out to the swordsman, Crona panicked and got up, rushing over to her side to push her back down onto the mattress.

"Please don't get up!" Crona pleaded, trying to push the girl down by her shoulders.

Moving in her critical condition caused Patty to whimper, blood coughed out from her mouth and trailed down her chin in a wide river from the edges of her lips. Crona's pale eyes widened anxiously, the girl wasn't in a good condition, and he was worried she might die.

"I-I'm fine." Patty croaked, giving a weak smile.

The pistol cringed and her hand rushed to her stomach in pain, whimpering as the wet wound stung as the air brushed against the bare pink flesh inside her body. Crona grabbed her hand and moved it away from the gap in her body, looking anxiously at the door, waiting for the others to come back.

Patty kept a tight grip on the swordsman's hand, crushing it in her painful grasp, tears brimming at the edges of her eyes. Crona began to lose feeling in his hand, but at the moment he was worrying more for Patty's well being. The pistol's grunts of pain were getting louder, small gasps of short breath to stop her from screaming.

"We're back!"

The door to the room seemed to explode open, Liz rushing over to her sister, shoving Crona out of the way. Maka had a pile of books in her arms, but tossed them aside to run to Patty's side, dragging Soul along with her. Kid and Soul had found long strips of gauze, nothing else, but it was enough to put their hopes up for Patty.

Kid shouldered his way in and tore a long piece of gauze out from the roll he had, wrapping it around Patty's bare stomach cautiously and securing it tightly in a knot. As he tightened the knot, Patty let out a pained scream, back arching and tears streaming down her cheeks.

Death the Kid's golden eyes winced at his weapon's agony, once the girl had settled her body back down onto the sheets, he laid his head down in the crook of her neck and hugged her around the torso delicately, "Patty…"

The pistol closed her eyes, breathing deeply, a small smile played across her cheeks, "Kiddo-kun~…"

The shinigami brought his head up again, his gold eyes were filled with tears as he stared at his weapon sadly. Unwrapping his arms from her torso, he gritted his teeth together and put a harsh grip on her shoulders.

"Dammit, Patty, don't die!"

The happy blonde giggled, "Don't worry, I'll try not to~!"

Soul sighed and handed Maka a small roll of gauze, "Here, maybe this will help you, maybe it won't."

Maka looked down at the bandages with her forest green eyes half-closed, gloved hand stretching it out slowly as she wrapped it around her own stomach slowly, picking up her shirt so that it would get to the wound. Tightening it into a tourniquet, the scythe technician stared at the blonde lying down on the blood soaked bed, biting her lip regretfully.

"It's been a long day, I'm going to sleep over there." Soul yawned, pointing over to an empty wall of the thickly carpeted room.

Maka nodded silently as the scythe went over to sleep against the wall, watching him comfortably adjust his head onto the flat surface with his fluffy white hair as a pillow. Next, the blonde meister looked over to Kid, who was standing beside her with his black bangs covering his eyes, the shinigami was clenching and unclenching his fists.

Crona was biting his lip guiltily over in the corner that crooked from the bed pressed against the wall, making him invisible to everyone except Liz, whom was sitting in the chair Crona was, but it was closer to Patty. Light snores were heard coming from Soul, his furrowed eyebrows unknotting, Maka sighed as Liz's eyes started to droop as the light in the room began to darken, the last orange and purple shades of sunlight filtered lazily in through the window.

Liz rested her head on the soft sheets that surrounded her sister, keeping a firm grip on the younger pistol's hand. Crona stood up and made his way to the opposite side of Patty, leaning against the wall beside the bedpost, watching the blonde warily.

Crona let out a small yawn and leaned his cheek against the metal headboard for support so that he wouldn't fall over. Soon enough, the swordsman was breathing heavily, his weary face more peaceful than when he was being burned with guilt and depression.

The only ones still awake were Death the Kid and Maka, Patty had been long asleep since Kid had let go of her and took his position at Maka's side. The scythe technician looked around at all of her friends sleeping soundly as if nothing had ever gone wrong, the tinge of the deep orange sun shining on them like a soft blanket, the deep shadows nestling in their places.

"This is really hard on all of us…" Maka whispered.

Death the Kid moved his gold eyes ruefully away from his injured weapon to the meister beside him, "Of course. Both BlackStar and Tsubaki are gone, and now Patty is on the brink of death. I don't know what I'll do if she were to die…"

"You'd be unsymmetrical." Maka teased quietly, "That'd be horrible."

Kid gave a small grin and a chuckle escaped him, but he once again to his pained expression, "It's not really something to light heartedly make fun of, but we're all trying to push aside the agony of this."

Maka bit her lip, "You're right, I shouldn't try to lighten up the air…"

The shinigami looked at the swordsman that was peacefully sleeping near Patty, hand brushing the edge of the mattress, Kid sighed, "Maybe he's not that bad."

Maka looked at the reaper, "Huh?"

Kid nodded towards Crona, "Medusa's son… I suppose he isn't so horrible."

Maka smiled, "I'm glad you think so, Crona isn't bad, nor is he mean. It's just that he was raised by the wrong person, I'm sure that if your father would let him live at Shibusen, he could really be helpful."

Death the Kid smiled, "Maybe… If we get out of here alive, I'll make sure to ask him if he'd like to come to Shibusen."

"I regret coming here…" Maka whispered.

Kid clenched his hand, "We all do."

Maka closed her emerald eyes sadly, "I hope this can be over soon. This place is a living hell."

The shinigami nodded in agreement, "We need to find Medusa, wherever she is, and kill her."

"Perhaps…" Maka pondered as her forest green eyes moved over to Crona, the swordsman still in his sleeping state, "Maybe Crona knows where she is…"

"That's right!" Kid remembered, "Once morning comes, we'll both ask him."

With a confident beam, Maka said, "We should probably get some rest too, watching everyone sleep so soundly is making me tired."

Death the Kid smiled, his gold eyes watching the others as well, and put his hands in his pocket, "It looks almost peaceful…"

Maka stretched, wary of the wound at her torso, "Well, I call the spot next to Soul."

Death the Kid raised an eyebrow, "For what reason?"

"It must be a comfortable spot with how Soul's sleeping." Maka explained.

Looking over at the scythe, the two meisters studied how the weapon was snoring soundly, drool hanging from his bottom lip, body in a relaxed and heavy position.

"Or maybe Soul is just a deep sleeper." Kid said.

"Mmn…" Maka hummed, "Soul has slept on the concrete outside out apartment door and looked content. So you're probably right…"

The shinigami looked at her with wide eyes, "Why was he sleeping outside?"

"I got mad."

"What did he d-?"

"Well it looks like we've got to go to bed! 'Night, Kid!" Maka rushed.

The blonde hopped over to where Soul was and curled up a few inches away, getting into a sleeping position. The shinigami sighed and looked over at Patty, seeing the pistol's resting expression, sadness pulled at his heart, he didn't know how long to girl would last.

Clutching at his chest with an angry fist, Kid gritted his teeth and took a deep breath, he was sure Maka wasn't already asleep, so he kept quiet. Maybe if he had listened to Maka at the beginning, if all of them had, Patty might not be in this position. In their fury with Crona, Patty had tried to protect him, there might have even been a possibility that Tsubaki might have still been alive as well. But now, it was far to late, and they could only hope for Patty's survival.

42…

The bright moon in the dark sky illuminated a faint and soft white glow to see in the pitch room filled with all of the sleeping teenagers. Crona's navy eyes matched with the sky as he opened them, blurry vision as he scanned over the sleeping bodies. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, his vision got better, the room was quiet, the only sounds were of deep breathing and the exceptional stirrings from someone.

The swordsman found this a time to slip away without being noticed, guessing what time it was, Crona felt that at the latest it was two A.M., which should give him enough time to what he wanted to do. Besides, even if one of the others woke up, they probably wouldn't notice that he was missing.

Quietly, the swordsman lifted himself up from his leaning position on the metal headboard of the bed Patty was currently asleep on, and tiptoed across the thickly carpeted floor, trying to avoid stepping on anyone. The door squeaked as he opened it, making Crona bit his lip fearfully that somebody would wake up and question him suspiciously.

Slipping out, and closing the door behind him, Crona was able to breathe freely, though he wasn't able to shake the sharp feeling that made him instincts heighten. He made his way to the next floor (the third as they were on the second), searching around for the deceased body of BlackStar. There wasn't much to fear now since most of the kishins were gone, their madness had finally driven them into complete depression and fear, and since all of the humans they were given were gone now, most of them ate each other. Some of them were too far-gone to remember that Shibusen students were still there. Nonetheless, Crona would still have to be cautious of the traps Medusa had set, and he wouldn't put it against her to gather more kishin eggs to prey on them.

Crona found BlackStar's body, heart wrenching sadly, and picked up the deceased meister, letting the corpse hang from his thin shoulders, the muscular body weighing him down tremendously. The swordsman huffed from the weight.

'At least he isn't as heavy as all of the luggage I had to carry…'

Slowly and painfully, Crona made his way down the flight of stairs with the ninja's body on him. Reaching his goal, Crona silently opened the door to the guest bedroom that was supposed to be reserved for BlackStar, carefully laying the assassin onto the cushioned mattress of the bed.

The limp body wasn't peaceful, the large gap in the chest and the glassy eyed expression made it look like the body look like a prop inside a haunted house. Squirming uncomfortably, Crona closed the lids of the glazed eyes of the ninja's wide green eyes. Mustering up the courage, Crona bowed deeply at the edge of the bed, feeling stupid for doing what his feelings pushed him to do.

"Please rest well…" the swordsman whispered, speaking as a host, thoughts telling him that he was an idiot, "BlackStar-sama…"

Pulling upright from his bowing position, the swordsman hurried from the room, closing the door quickly behind him, breathing heavily with fear. He went back up to the second floor, now in search of Tsubaki, which he found her very easily, the weapon laid out on the wood floor like a limp rag doll.

A small blue orb was floating buoyantly above the body, as if Tsubaki had never consumed her meister's soul, completely innocent and sweet natured. Reaching a nervous hand toward the soul, Crona stroked it, taking the floating orb and caressing it gently, making sure that it did not touch his skin, but remained at a centimeters space to that it was cradled protectively.

The swordsman wrapped Tsubaki's limp arm around his shoulder so that he could keep her weight better, the soul embraced near his chest with one arm, and Tsubaki's large body in his other. The task wasn't easy considering that the girl was the same height as him, if not taller, and weighed more than his thin skeleton like frame. But the swordsman managed to get the weapon and the soul safely to their reserved room, having more than a little difficulty opening the door. Crona let the soul go, letting it float happily beside him as he pushed open the obstacle. Hugging the soul once again as he took Tsubaki inside.

Crona laid the body onto the mattress as he did BlackStar, cautiously setting the girl onto the clean white sheets. Like he did BlackStar, Crona bowed deeply, staring at the floorboards that were polished with a clean shine in the moon's light.

"Rest peacefully, Tsubaki-sama… I'm sorry."

Crona pulled himself up and studied the person laid out across the bed. Her expression was peaceful, unlike her meister's; the black hair that was pulled up was draped in a silky ocean across the crisp pillow her head lay on, her eyes were shut in a dream like state, the cheeks were soft and almost thoughtful like. The wounds spread out across her body from Crona's blood needles were almost unnoticeable with the blissful sight of such a beautiful girl laying on her clean deathbed.

Looking at such a sight, Crona clenched his eyes shut and his body shook with an emotion he couldn't describe. It brought tears to his eyes; it was mixed in with something like guilt and fear, with a trembling that made seat run cold down his temple. Crona realized that he was shivering from the cold ice feeling that was running in his veins, as if the pitch black of his blood were rivers of frozen water.

Tears washing out from his eyes from his guilt, Crona wiped at the streams with the back of his wrist, "It's… all my fault isn't it?… That this girl had to die, Tsubaki. She had a pretty name too."

With his face in the palms of his hands, Crona's tears slid out from the gaps between his fingers, gripping edges of his head, the soft lavender locks playing in his face. His powder blue eyes were wet and red, a crazed look in them.

"It will be my fault if the other one, Patty, dies too…" he mumbled, breath hitching, "…and everyone will hate me, they'll kill me too since it's not against the rules anymore. The rules are gone… I'll deserve to die…"

The swordsman turned on his heel and escaped the vision that could only make his guilt worse, and made his way back to the room that the others were sleeping in. Crona's thoughts pounded as he walked down the dark hall, words throbbing his brain and his vision getting blurry with his concentration getting out of focus.

'Why did I have to get caught up in such a game my mother set up?'

**42…**

**A/N: Yeah… I really have to move this to the Crona & Maka section; my fangirl inside is just taking control over me… the original version of this story wasn't even _supposed_ to have Crona as one of the main characters! He/She was supposed to mentioned once and never seen again… Oh well, I suppose it turned out for the better (maybe), it's too late to go back now.**

**Review please~**


	9. Patty: II

**A/N: This chapter is really short. I feel sad about that.**

**Responses to Reviews:**

**Webidolchiu94: Why did Soul sleep outside? I don't know, he ripped one of Maka's books or something (O.o). If you want, I can make you a personalized KidXPatty fic (I neeeeed one more fan fiction, I only have seven D: I'm glad you like your name in the disclaimer ^^**

**Kara Black: Thank you for reviewing on my chapter~! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Eater, title belongs to webidolchiu94.**

**42…**

Chapter 9:

Patty: II

Patty's eyes blinked open in the late hours of the night, vision blurry and unfocused. The blonde was woken up by a noise that sounded like a door closing, but when she looked around, nothing seemed out of place. The pistol felt something on her lap and looked down to find that her meister was curled up on her right thigh, black bangs hanging over his closed eyes.

Death the Kid's features were softened in his slumber, childish youth defining his face instead of the stern and serious expression he always wore. The young pistol's gaze softened and he smiled happily, grateful that she was and her sister were taken in by such a great person.

Hesitantly, almost fearfully, Patty reached out to touch the shinigami, brushing her hand across the silky locks of his jet-black hair. The boy stirred slightly at the touch, and his golden eyes opened slowly, making the pistol's heart jump.

"Patty?…" the shinigami slurred, half-asleep.

"Oops, I wasn't supposed to wake you up. Sorry."

The boy, grinned, realizing that his weapon was in front of him still alive, "No, it's fine."

Death the Kid picked himself up from Patty's lap and a tinge of red came across his face, noting that the position he was in was more than enough physical contact he's had with anyone. Patty giggled at his red face, enough to shake the bed, but not enough to wake the others.

"Kid-kun got red~" Patty teased.

The shinigami coughed his embarrassment into his fist, "It's nice to see that you're well."

The pistol grinned even though she could feel the energy inside of her leaking out like ice cream from its cone on a scorching day. The blood loss was making her feel faint, and her vision wasn't in focus, so her meister's features weren't sharp.

Death the Kid picked himself up completely, and Patty scooted over so that he could sit beside her. Positioning himself comfortably against the headboard, Death the Kid leaned his head on top of Patty's and put an arm around her bare shoulder. The blonde was confused but shivered as she realized how cold it really was in the room, snuggling against Kid to share the body heat so her skin didn't turn blue.

'Like Sid-sensei…' Patty thought.

The grip around her shoulder tightened, and the blonde looked up at Kid, seeing his gold eyes staring at the red stained sheets.

"Kid-kun…"

Kid looked at her and gave a weak smile, "Don't worry, Patty, everything will be fine. We'll get you all fixed up. You'll have a couple of scars, but you'll be just as good as you were when you came into this damned building, if not better!"

Patty could see the look of doubt on his face and the feigned confidence to try to make her feel better. The blonde knew she was on the brink of death, fighting with all of her will power to remain alive, and was aware that there wasn't much they could do. Patty knew she needed the best of luck to get out of this situation well, but she put on a smile too, the one she used for every occasion; she had learned to master it even in the most tragic of times.

"Don't worry, I'm not that worried about myself, I'm positive that you'll find a way to help me."

Death the Kid gave an affectionate smile, then yawned, "I'm starting to get tired again."

"I feel fine, I could chase around giraffes and I'd still be good." Patty lied, her bright feigned smile plastered across her rosy cheeks.

"Well, I'm tired, and you need the rest." The shinigami told her sternly.

Patty gave a fake pout, grateful that he told her that she could sleep, "Aw~ I don't want to, but okay."

With a smile, Death the Kid leaned back onto the headboard and closed his eyes, and within the matter of minutes, his breathing had become deep and peaceful, the grip around her shoulder loosening. Patty leaned against his shoulder, blue eyes gazing around the room. Her sister was asleep in the chair by her bed, brunette hair flowing over her shoulders.

The young pistol stared silently at the wall in front of her, occasionally looking at the sleeping Soul and Maka, images swirling around in her mind. Patty looked at the moon outside of the window, with its crazed laughter, shivering with delight in the dark sky.

Suddenly, Patty heard the door open, and stared at it with fearful anticipation and curiosity. The familiar thin body of Medusa's son slipped in, his black clothing making it hard to see him, but the color of his cotton candy hair was unmistakable. He tried to back away from the door slowly, trying to be as quiet as possible.

"Crona-kun?"

The swordsman jumped with an almost impossible jolt, as if he had just been jolted into paralyzed statue. Slowly, his head turned to meet his deep navy eyes with the bright turquoise ones of Patty, a look of pure fear set in his features.

Patty cocked her head to the side, making Death the Kid's arm slide from her shoulder to the mattress, "Crona-kun, what are you doing?"

The boy shook his head and put on a wobbly smile, "N-nothing!"

"Hmm…" Patty hummed.

Crona walked over to the side of her bed, wary of Liz, and noticing the shinigami sleeping beside her , smiling inwardly. Patty tugged on the edge of his sleeve and her bright eyes looked up at him while his navy ones avoided contact.

Finally, the swordsman kept her eyes and accepted the blonde to keep a grip on his hand, "P-patty-san, w-what are you doing awake?

"You're awake to." The pistol stated.

"W-well, I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep."

"Me, too."

Crona gave up on excuses, "Though, you should be resting. It's not good for you to stay up with your condition."

Patty's grip on Crona's hand tightened as her baby blue eyes stared at the covers, "I'll be fine."

The blonde's voice cracked uncharacteristically, and Crona's expression softened, "Don't be scared."

"I'm not scared!" Patty denied childishly, a confident put on her face.

Truth was, she was scared. Very scared, for whether or not she would survive.

**42…**

**A/N: Okay, after this post, this is officially going into the Crona/Maka section. Please review~! And yay, a (kind of) fast update!**


	10. Torn Symmetry

**A/N: I take forever to update ANYTHING. I know. But hey, I'm only thirteen, I have a life (no I don't). I've been so caught up in trying to watch and read as much anime and manga as possible. So that's my excuse. I've tried to smash in as much anime in my free time as possible instead of working on fan fictions like a good devoted hard-working person would. Please don't eat me ;A;**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater, title belongs to webidolchiu94.**

**Some Kid X Patty for you webidolchiu94 ;3**

**42…**

Chapter 10:

Torn Symmetry

Death the Kid woke up, his gold eyes adjusting to the deep violet and dark pink gradient of light that was coming from the sky since the sun had yet to show itself. He looked over to find that Patty was sleeping soundly with her back turned to him, and wishing to see that she was okay, got up cautiously to look at her.

Her young face calmly leaning on the back of the head post, the deep wound in her stomach stained the white covers that were wrapped around her torso, and her breath was panting out in a constant rhythm. The shinigami noticed the her left hand was fanned out from her side, childishly gripping onto another, which turned out to be Liz, and her other was hanging down off the bed, fingers gently brushed into the recognizable pink hair of Medusa's son.

Kid glared at this and was about to snatch his weapon's hand away from Crona's head when the swordsman's dark blue eyes slowly opened to find Kid in front of him. The boy blushed when he found Patty's fingers wrapped into his hair and removed the hand gently, getting up to greet Patty's meister. The timid boy looked weary and fearful, like had done something he wasn't supposed to, but considering the fact that it was shinigami's son who was in front of him, Kid didn't think suspiciously of it.

"G-good morning, s-shinigami-san." Crona stuttered, bowing deeply to him.

Death the Kid sighed in exasperation, "Same to you."

Crona squirmed, "I feel like I should probably bring back some food, it's already been two days, if not a little more."

The shinigami nodded, "That should be a good idea."

Hope alight in his eyes, Crona stumbled, "I-I'll go search for some."

Death the Kid watched as the swordsman rushed from the room, closing the door gently behind him to not wake anyone up. Once he was gone, Kid looked around the spacious quarters, seeing that none of the others looked close to leaving their slumber at the moment with all of the stress trying to leave their minds.

With a sigh, Death the Kid knelt down and sunk into the place where Crona was sleeping before, staring up at the ceiling. He heard a soft mumbles and turned his head to see that Patty's lips were moving with incomprehensible words, the blonde's hand twitched next to his head and brushed across his hair.

"…K…id…?"

Surprised, the shinigami searched for the person who said his name, "K-kid…?"

Patty's hand, the one that was draped across his head, moved, fingers lacing into Kid silky jet-black hair. The shinigami froze, feeling the warmth of Patty's hand winding into his hair, he swallowed and looked up to meet his weapon's eyes.

Kid's golden eyes meet with sky-blue, the injured girl that lie on the bed giving a weary smile in his direction, eyes seeming as if they couldn't see him clearly with sleep. The shinigami's expression was sweet when he smiled, making Patty give a livelier one in return.

The blonde looked around, "Hm? Where'd Crona go?"

Immediately, Kid's expression hardened, "He went to go get some food for all of us."

"Oh."

"Are you feeling okay?" Patty looked at Kid, his face was concerned as he stared at her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Patty answered.

Kid leaned his head against the box of the bed, sighing as he looked at the ceiling that was cloaked with the orange and purple tint, shadows angled from the corners. The shinigami reached up and took Patty's hand in his own, squeezing it with a feel of protectiveness.

His eyes narrowed with determination as he gave a hard stare at the shadows that shifted with the movements of the clouds. Silently, Death the Kid made a promise to himself, that if Patty were to die, he would make sure Liz survived.

"Kid-kun…?"

With another soft squeeze, Kid looked up at Patty with a warm smile, eyes soft like a mother cooing soothing lullabies to her baby, "Yes?"

The blonde blinked in curiosity, taken aback at her meister's sweet expression, "I hope everyone wakes up soon, I really want to be with everyone as much as I can. Even if I don't die, I won't be able fight with you guys."

Death the Kid nodded, "That's true. We've got to set off every trap and kill every enemy, you won't be able to dodge everything."

The shinigami paused for a moment, staring at the wall opposite of him.

"Why do we have to do this?" He suddenly asked her, "Why can't we just stay in one area and if something comes for us kill it? It would be easier that way to protect you, right? Why hasn't anyone else seen this already?"

The pistol looked down at her meister, "Didn't you hear what Crona told us?"

"Well, I usually refrain from listening to him, so what do you mean?" Kid asked.

"He said that we had to complete everything or Medusa would kill us off, he said that she would torture us first though." Patty answered.

Kid's eyes widened, "I though she said there were no more rules!"

Patty stared at him wearily, "He told us after that too, it still applies."

The shinigami slumped, hand loosening its grip on Patty's, "Damn…"

Tightening her own grip, Patty spoke, "Crona… was talking to me last night. He told me that I shouldn't be afraid, that I'd pull it through. I told him I'd be fine though. He kind of gave me this look, it was like he suddenly understood something… I don't know what it was though."

Kid blinked, he hadn't remembered the swordsman in the room at the time, but of course he never paid attention to the witch's son, so it wouldn't have been surprising if he'd merely looked over him. The shinigami's attention was brought back to Patty once she began to speak again, his heart leapt when he saw that there were tears brimming at her eyes, which she was hastily scrubbing away with her free arm. Concerned for his weapon, the shinigami lept up and slid into the space where he slept, holding onto her shoulder.

The girl sniffled, "He sat at the edge of the bed and talked to me, listening to what I was saying. I don't know why but… when I was talking, he started to tear up. And then he told me that I should sleep, he looked over at you and told me that if I were to die… I would die loved."

Patty's tears started to rain down her cheeks, pressing her head in the cradle between her meister's shoulder and collarbone, gripping onto his jacket. Death the Kid's eyes widened as he looked at the young girl latched onto him, sobbing freely, but quietly, moved by the sight. He reached his hand out and stroked the back of her head, leaning his head down to touch his lips to her hair, the blonde strands tickling his mouth.

Releasing Kid's jacket from her hold, Patty looked up to stare at her meister, wiping the tears away, "What did he mean by that, I wonder… when he looked at you?… Is it that you love me?"

The question sent a jolt though the shinigami's body and realized that the girl was actually waiting for him to answer, "… Yes, Patty… I love you."

A bright and thoughtful smile lit up her face and the blonde pistol snuggled into his chest as she hugged him around the torso, ignoring that the wounds on her arms were throbbing, "I love you, too, Kid. So does Onee-chan and everyone else."

Innocent and wide sky-blue eyes looked up at him from the hug, dependent like a young sister to her loyal and elder brother. Death the Kid frowned at the thought, because, perhaps, he didn't like the idea of just being an older sibling figure like Liz, but wanted to be something more important.

The young pistol raised her hand and pressed a finger to the middle of the shinigami's furrowed eyebrows, making them straighten out, "Kid-kun… what's wrong?"

Death the Kid smiled, seeing that his younger weapon's face was still a bit red and dry tear streaks were on her cheeks, that she was on the brink of death and yet she mustered up enough control to act fine and ask what was wrong with _him_.

He shook his head, "Nothing."

Gold eyes studied the blonde, trying to figure out if maybe, before death, he could get closer to her. Even if the blonde wouldn't die, what everyone was praying so fiercely for, this could be a good chance, it wouldn't matter to him if it would be awkward later, it was Patty, so it would blow off eventually.

Deciding on his actions then, with everyone still asleep as if they were in a coma—and Kid was hoping that they would stay in such a position for a while longer and Crona could be away for that much longer as well-, the death god hesitantly raised his hand and took the blonde's hand away from his forehead, wrapping it in his palm. Immediately, the taken aback expression was apparent in the Thompson's eyes, sky-blue looking at him with the confusion of a blameless child.

Pain tugging at him, Death the Kid touched his forehead against hers, anxious gold eyes looking into her worry-free ones. He held her hand to his chest, not wanting to let go of the person he might lose within the next few days. Kid was wonderfully glad that the stakes hadn't ripped her stomach or intestines to where they were useless, if they had, she would have been long dead, but instead made it to where she couldn't move anything unless she faced an enormous amount of pain, which she bravely endured.

Suddenly, they heard the knob to the door twist, making Death the Kid move away from the blonde, getting in a position to where he was just sitting beside her. The shinigami was muttering profanities in this head, he didn't act quickly enough, so he settled for keeping hold of Patty's hand.

The door to the room opened and both of the teenagers looked up expectantly, watching as the now familiar swordsman slip through the door, a mass of various items in his arms. Crona scooted the door shut with his hip, trying to do so as quietly as possible, and laid out the options of food across Patty's lap since there was no other place to put them other then the floor.

Patty stared at the piece of meat that was so vulnerable at her feet, the side of her mouth salivating, eyes craving. Kid rose an eyebrow as he saw everything, from meat to grains, and noticed Patty reaching desperately for the piece of dry steak out of her reach. He pushed it forward, smiling inwardly at her little cheer.

"Where did you get all this?" Kid asked.

Crona looked up from the piece of bread he was nibbling on, "Oh, I went to the kitchen on the first floor. I had to kill a few things though, and I made sure that nothing was poisoned."

"Medusa would poison her own experiments?" Death the Kid asked.

"Of course," Crona answered, "Because she can always get new ones. She wanted to see if anyone would be stupid enough to not check. I might get in trouble for interfering with her examinations on you by saying so much as to what to look out for though."

The shinigami nodded and watched Patty tear at the dry steak in her hand, gnawing hungrily. Crona raised the small roll of bread to his lips, staring down at the fist that was his own twisting at the black cloth at his thigh. Shuffling was heard, and the three teenagers that were sitting upon the bed found that Soul was waking up, bringing Maka with him, crimson eyes opening sleepily.

Maka rubbed her eyes and looked around at her surroundings, seeing that both Kid and Crona were awake without the swordsman being killed perked her up from sleep right away. When Soul spotted the food, immediately he shot up and dragged Maka with him over to the bed, scooting Liz, who was still sleeping in the chair near the bedside, over.

The light-colored brunette woke with a start, and realizing that she'd been moved by a certain scythe, growled in his direction. Soul began hungrily raiding at the food, a joyous look of content on his face, mumbling happily as he chewed. Maka shook her head at her weapon, grabbing an apple and taking a bite from it, hearing it hit her empty stomach.

Liz took an orange and began to peel it, watching Patty all the while, smiling at her younger sister. The elder pistol tore a piece of the orange and bit into it, eyebrows furrowing as the juice got to some of the several scratches along her body, the acid stinging at the small wounds.

All of the teenagers were eating in silence, trying to get as much energy food as possible so none of them would pass out sooner or later. Crona was literally pounced upon when they found he had bottled water to pass around, scared half to death as he was robbed of all but one-his own- of the bottles.

Recovering from the physical bombard, Crona scooted away from the others, twisting the cap to the bottle open and taking a sip of the luke-warm water. Soul downed the water in about one gulp, a trickle of it running down the side of his mouth where he missed to drink it in his haste.

As Crona was about to take another drink, his eyes widened, and he quickly turned his head in the door's direction. The others, noticing his odd actions, were giving him strange looks.

"Crona?" Maka asked, "What's wrong?"

The swordsman's answer came softly, fearful, "Medusa… she got more Kishin eggs, powerful ones."

Liz's eyes widened in fear as she gasped, "Are you seri- Ah!"

The door flung open, hinges breaking as the wood smashed against the opposing wall, chips flying everywhere, the plaster from the walls clouding up into dust that impaired the teenager's vision. Immerging from the large gap where the door was, a kishin egg squeezed through the opening, almost too large to get in. Immediately, everyone took action.

"Soul!" Maka called.

"Right!"

The scythe transformed and landed into his meister's hands, Maka looked at Kid and Liz, "You two guard Patty!"

Crona drew out his sword form his hand, watching the monster in front of him warily. The kishin egg was large, but didn't seem that smart, which was a good advantage to defeat it. It walked, head brushing the ceiling, steps shaking the floor below them, throwing them off balance.

With unexpected speed, the kishin egg swung out its arm and smashed it into all of them, throwing the teenagers, bed and all, into the opposing wall. Fortunately, because of Medusa's spells, they didn't go flying out of the invisible walls from the second floor of the eight-floor building.

Patty was thrown off from the bed, as it had been smashed, and smacked into the wall with a painful gasp, sliding onto the floor, wounds ripped open and bleeding. Death the Kid immediately rushed over to her, shaking her to try to keep the blonde conscious, she barely managed to keep a grip on his shoulder to keep awake.

Kid held her around the waist, keeping her close to him so that she wouldn't get hit with anything, protecting her. Liz's blue eyes widened as she watched Maka get thrust into the wall, the kishin's thick hand wrapped effortlessly around her neck.

Crona rushed in and, with a large swing, took the monster's hand off, crimson red blood spraying across the room. Though, the blood was more of a brown than red. The kishin egg roared at its lost, watching the girl he had tried to kill pull his useless hand away from her neck and throw it to the ground.

Patty shivered into her meister's chest, holding onto him like a man would hold onto the ledge of the cliff he was hanging off of. The shinigami moved one of his arms from her waist to wrap it around her shoulders to hold her in as she pressed her head into him. He could feel Patty's arm wrap around her stomach, trying to stop the blood from spilling, trying to not die. The blood also leaked from her arms and leg, where her other wounds were opened.

Liz grabbed the hand that was wrapped around her sister's shoulders, "Kid! You need to use me!"

He looked at her, "What?"

"You need to use me to shoot the kishin egg! He looks too powerful."

"Liz, I can't-"

"If this is about your stupid symmetry-!"

"It's not!" he exclaimed at her, "He… he might get Patty if we attack him. We can't leave her because she's vulnerable, and we can't shoot from where we are because we'll all be a target."

Kid felt Patty trembling in his arm, at first he thought it was of fear, but seeing the rage in her eyes when she shoved away from him told otherwise, "Don't treat me like a nuisance! I can take care of myself!"

Liz reached a hand out to her sister, "Patty, your condition-"

"I don't care!" The younger Thompson exclaimed.

Hearing the argument, the Kishin egg turned towards them, the kishin egg ignored the swings both Maka and Crona were making at him, he just shoved them away and made his way to the three teenagers huddled against the wall. Immediately, Liz transformed and was caught by Kid, despite his twitch of exasperation at the asymmetry.

A throaty chuckle came from the monster headed their way, Death the Kid shot a round into its chest, golden eyes glaring angrily. It swung its arm and threw both Kid and Patty to the wall on the right, bashing them into the wall violently. The shinigami accidentally let go of Liz halfway through his flying adventure and the gun was flung across the room, unfortunately being caught by the kishin egg and thrown to the ground, bouncing back up with the force and clattering back down to the floor.

"Liz!" Maka shouted as the elder hand pistol glowed and morphed back into her human form, lying unconscious on the ground.

Crona slashed at his opponent's leg, making the dark brown blood splash out, it roared and Maka went at it, being swatted away once again. Meanwhile, Death the Kid was panicking in the corner with an arm around a bleeding blonde, praying for the sake of both of his weapons.

Patty's eyes opened and Kid took a sigh of relief, tears brimming at his eyes that he didn't know if they were to be of happiness or soon grief. Even though they were open, the young Thompson's eyes were hazy and unseeing, the blood was gushing, getting on the shinigami's clothes and staining his hands with the crimson liquid. It was pooling on the ground, the puddle seeping on the floor, thin rivers running on her body.

"K-kid…?" Patty choked out in a hollow whisper.

"Yes, Patty?" The shinigami asked, griping onto her body, praying to the Heavens.

The blonde couldn't move, all of her energy was drained, all the time of mustering the pain had finally taken vengeance, but she was able to smile up at her meister and tell him with her voice sounding so peaceful and caring, "Take care of Onee-chan, 'kay?"

"Wha-?"

The shinigami was about to question what she said, but the blonde's expression was suddenly blank, bright eyes losing their light as they closed. Patty's body fell limp and her head rested against her meister's shoulder, almost seeming like she was taking a nap.

Death the Kid's eyes widened, "Patty…?"

He got no answer. He began to shake her shoulders, "Patty? No, no, please, Patty, no!"

The shinigami had tears streaking down his face as he looked at his weapon's lifeless body moving with his vigorous shaking, "Patty! PATTY!"

Maka, who had finally defeated the kishin egg- the one that had fallen so heavily onto the floor everyone wasn't able to hear the shinigami and Patty in the corner- and was breathing heavily, heard Kid's exclamations. Crona as well looked over to where the shinigami was, seeing Maka and her weapon rush over to see what was wrong.

Soul transformed into his human form and Crona slung Liz onto his back to take her unconscious body over. The shinigami was holding the younger of his weapons in his arms, shaking her and calling her name frantically, his usually collected expression in panic and grief.

Maka, seeing Patty's state, knowing immediately, fell to her knees, one hand covering her mouth as she sobbed. Soul kneeled down and patted his meister on the back, surprised when she flung herself at him, hanging onto his jacket, crying with grief.

Crona's expression was stony, holding the elder sister on his back, but the boy felt a pain in his chest when Maka cried out, "I can't take it anymore! It's only been two or three days and already!… Already almost half of everyone is dead!"

The blonde choked on words, trying to swallow her emotions back to regain composure, but failed miserably, sliding onto the floor and curling into a ball. Death the Kid has his face hidden as he held the deceased body in his arms, he let it go and moved over to where the bed was flung. With a grunt, he flipped it back onto its legs, straightening the blankets. Going back over to his weapon, he picked the body up bridal style and laid it gently on the bed, pulling the covers up to the chest.

Crona watched as he did so, seeing the shinigami look at him with a composed expression. Death's son went over to him and held his arms out; the swordsman understood the gesture and let the girl on his back move into her meister's arms.

42…

Everyone sighed in relief as the elder Thompson opened her eyes, mumbling softly as she woke up. Liz pulled herself up and noticed that Kid was hovering unusually close to her, it confused her because shouldn't he be more concerned about Patty's condition then hers. This thought sparked her brain, if he was concerned about her, then that would mean Patty was okay then!

Immediately more awake, Liz looked around, seeing that there was an absence of her sister in the faces that watched her. The pistol saw that her body was covered in bruises, they throbbed painfully, and this made the pistol sigh. Liz looked up at her meister questioningly, wondering where her sister was.

"Where's Patty?" Liz asked.

Kid averted his gold eyes from hers, lips tight. This aroused the elder Thompson's suspicion, "Kid? Where's. Patty."

When she saw him shake his head slowly, her eyes widen in disbelief. She looked at the other three in front of her, "It's not true! Where's Patty? Tell me!"

Liz saw the tear streaks that were apparent on Maka's cheeks and the pain that was pooling deep in Soul's eyes, and the way the swordsman was standing awkwardly with the rest of them, not meeting her eyes.

"No…" she whispered, "No, Patty can't die! She can't be dead!"

"I'm sorry…" Kid whispered, his voice choked.

Reality shook her hard, Liz felt like she was going to throw up and water had suddenly made a puddle on her lap as she cried. Kid rubbed her back as she cried out, screams mixing in with her sobs, hand clenching around her chest.

The pistol grabbed onto his shoulder, sniffling and mumbling her sister's name, "…Patty… Patty…Why, Patty?"

The shinigami stroked her arm, trying to soothe her, letting Liz lean against in him in angst.

'Don't worry, Patty.' He thought, 'I'll protect your sister with my life.'

**42…**

**Reviews?**


	11. New Guests

**A/N: Dunz eat meh!*covers head in protective pose*! For some reason every ounce of my inspiration to do anything (any of my fan fictions, making AMV's, and etc.) has just bled out of my body. ;A;**

**Responses to Reviews:**

**Kara Black: Yay, KidXPatty~! Yeah, sorry that I ruined the fluffy pairing moment by killing off one of the characters, that character being kind of important for there to be Kid and Patty romance ^^;**

**Blackbloodbaby: Hrm, I'll think about that ;D Honest, I really haven't thought it all yet in the storyline (except for the ending).**

**Webidolchiu94: Don't worry, the excuse is totally understandable, the reason I haven't updated in forever is because I've been having some stress in school too. =P**

**1. I iz glad that you liked the Kid and Patty ^^ I like writing it.**

**2. Why thank you~. No, really, I'm glad that my writing is improving =D**

**3. D= I'm sorry, hug?**

**4. You deserve it. When I saw the title, a hand just about came out of my mouth because it was so perfect, so many thank you's~ **

**5. \(^3^)/ Hooray~!**

**ISKye: Thank you~! Usually I don't get very emotional while reading fan fictions either (because it isn't the official work), so your comment totally made my day ^^**

**DeadlySereneGrace: Hm, never thought of making Kid go wacko, but I'll keep that idea in mind (I totally just make this story up as I go).**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Soul Eater. Title is owned by Webidolchiu94.**

**42…**

Chapter 11:

New Guests

The silence was thick.

All of the teenagers were extremely quiet, all in their separate areas, thinking. Maka was leaning her forehead against a wall, arms hanging limply beside, resembling a child being put to stand in the corner. Soul was plopped on the floor, leaning his head back and staring at the ceiling, the way he was positioned, once would think he'd been sitting under a tree with a light wind breezing through his snowy hair, but the aura around him said otherwise. Death the Kid had his arm wrapped around an extremely depressed Liz, letting her head thump onto his shoulder when she had sat down, the pistol hadn't moved since other than her low breathing. Crona was standing by the door, farther back from them as he thought.

It was nerve racking. Their thoughts were all jumbled. 'What are we going to do?' 'I don't want to go on.' 'I hate this place.' 'I'll kill Medusa for sure.' 'Three of us are gone…' 'What will happen next?' 'I don't want anybody else to die!'

Maka lifted her head slowly, her deep forest eyes opening and sliding over to glance out the window.

"!"

Maka made a noise of surprise, startling everybody in the room as she swished over to the glass panel. Everybody was curious as to what the scythe meister was doing when she looking out of the window intensely, leaning onto the windowsill heavily, like she was trying to push herself against the glass to get a better look of what was outside.

"Maka, what's wrong?" Death the Kid asked.

The girl didn't answer, but scared everyone when she suddenly banged her fist against the window, making the unbreakable glass ripple.

"Dammit!" she exclaimed.

Soul went over to his meister, putting a hand on her shoulder to push her out of the way to see what she was seeing, "What's out there?"

Suddenly, he saw what it was that had made his partner so angry.

Seven familiar bodies were walking up the pathway that lead into the torturous place they were locked in. Kim Diehl, Jacqueline O' Lantern, Havar D'éclair*****, Ox Ford, Kilik Rung, Fire, and Thunder.

Soul moved away from the window, "The people at Shibusen must have gotten concerned about us."

Maka clenched her hand into a fist, "And I bet Medusa's going to trap them in this place along with us?"

"Most definitely." Death the Kid said, "There's no way she would pass up the chance when the victims are just strolling in."

Soul turned to look at the swordsman leaning against the door of the room, "She's just going to keep luring in people isn't she?"

"Yes. She's probably going to keep trying to get as many Shibusen students within her grasp as possible, that is, until a teacher is sent in because the students are all disappearing."

The scythe nodded, "Yeah, that makes sense."

"That damned witch…" Liz spoke up, "If only we'd never come here."

"If only." Kid sighed, "But it's too late to regret it, now we just need to try not to let anybody else die, especially not the others that are coming now. If anyone else were to be lost, I don't think I would be able to call myself a noble shinigami any longer."

**42…**

As the next set of seven teenagers walked up the small pathway that led up to the large building that was said to be a bed and breakfast—the building may have very well been a palace with its large size of an entire eight stories—Kim thought she saw a flicker of something within one of the windows, something lanky and dark, like a shadow slugging across the room. The figure was gone when she blinked, but the concealed witch was curious as to what it was- perhaps one of the guests was not feeling well?

When they appeared at the doorway, they were met by a woman that was opening the door. She was very pretty, with honey blonde hair that was wrapped in a single braid that framed her face and met in the middle of her chest, and gentle gold eyes, and her figure was perfectly curved and seductive.

She accidentally bumped into Kim, a look of surprise adorning her soft face, when she spotted the students, the woman immediately smiled, "Oh, I'm terribly sorry, I was just going to get some fresh air."

Kim stepped back, "Oh, no, it's okay."

Ox Ford stepped up, "Ah, we're here to see how the other Shibusen students were doing."

The woman seemed as if she had already known this, her face wearing the patient expression of a teacher explaining to a stubborn child, and her syrupy sweet smile seemed as she was straining patience, "Of course! They had told me that they wanted to call to say that they were staying a little bit longer, I'm so flattered that they like my hospitality!"

Harvar narrowed his eyes, he didn't like the way she smiled, even through the red lenses of his glasses, he could see the cold glint in the back of her eyes.

"Oh, by the way, my name is Medusa." The woman informed them, "Would you like to step inside?"

The seven of them did, and Medusa just seemed to brighten up when she saw Fire and Thunder, "Oh, they're so adorable, these little twins are~!"

Jacqueline saw the side of Kilik's eye twitch when Medusa exclaimed, he never liked it when people gushed over the twins.

The small toddlers looked up at the woman in front of them curiously with their large blue eyes and held on tightly to the hem of their meister's jeans.

Medusa straightened herself out, "I apologize for my manners, I shouldn't be so rude. What are your names?"

One by one they said them, Medusa's eyes getting more excited with each name said aloud.

"My, you are some of the other strongest meisters aren't you? I feel absolutely delighted to have all of you here." Medusa gushed, bowing to all of them respectfully.

Ox Ford spoke up, "Ah, we're not that special, there's no need to be so formal."

The hostess gave him a bright smile that put Kim on edge, her instincts were pulling hard at her brain. This woman's presence felt familiar somehow. Had she met her before? Kim's soul perception wasn't good, so she couldn't tell what it was exactly that irked her.

Suddenly, Medusa was holding out a platter to them, a hopeful expression adorned her face along with a kid smile, "Cookies?"

**42…**

*****.** Is that his last name? I would look it up, but my Internet isn't working so well right now.**

**A/N: Yes, yes. This was a super short chapter ;A;**

**Reviews?**


	12. Goodbye, Beloved Raccoon

**A/N: I'm so sorry I've been gone so long! ;A; **

**Procrastination is a beautiful things, but once you decide to get to work, you always feel so guilty (at least I do). /sighs, anyways, to anyone who can tell what the chapter title means without reading the chapter yet, congratulations ^^**

**42…**

Chapter 12:

Goodbye, Beloved Raccoon

Kim was suspicious, very suspicious, as she nibbled on the warm cookie that the hostess had given her, feeling a bad premonition build in the pit of her stomach. Medusa was still smiling sweetly, her golden eyes hopeful and patient, and it made Kim glare at her silently.

"Is there anything wrong, Ms. Diehl?" the woman asked her.

Kim shook her head, giving another wary glance toward her, "No, it's… nothing."

When Medusa turned away, Ox went over to Kim, "Kim-chan, what's wrong?"

She turned to him, her green eyes trying to see through his opaque glasses, "I'm fine."

Ox didn't look as though he believed her, but he left Kim alone nonetheless, sending her a weary glance before heading off to his weapon's side. Kim sighed as she watched him, Ox obviously didn't feel the unsettling aura around their hostess, and though it would be wiser to warn everyone, she didn't want to worry them.

Jacqueline came to stand beside her and gave a questioning glance, looking at her meister's troubled expression. Kim tried to shrug away her emotions and smiled reassuringly at her partner, though Jacqueline was just as fool as Ox and still was worried over her friend.

Kilik spoke up, "So, where are the others?"

Medusa turned toward him "Ah, I apologize, I'll take you to them immediately."

She led the teenagers upstairs, ignoring the glare that was settling on her back by a certain pink haired girl. Ox continued to watch Kim from behind, seeing how her back was stiff and her had was grasped tightly around Jacqueline's.

Once the teenagers reached the second floor, they were hit with the strong aura of insanity, all of them groaning and clutching at their heads- save for Medusa and Harvar. Ox gripped onto his throbbing temples and had to keep himself from falling on the floor. Harvar held him upright with angry concern adorning his face, sharp eyes narrowed behind his red glasses.

"Ox, what's wrong?" he asked, not being able to feel the heavy wavelength.

Kilik put a hand on the lightning spear to support himself, breaths coming out heavily, "You… and your damn… thick skull."

Harvar seemed to catch on, glaring at Medusa- who seemed to be looking around at her "guests" innocently as if nothing was happening- and lunged towards the witch, arm already transforming into a weapon to stab into the witch's stomach.

"Vector Arrow."

Medusa's sweet honey-like voice morphed into something sticky and seductive, her gold eyes flashing like one might see in the pupils of a cat… or snake. A dark violet arrow conjured up on the ground and threw Harvar the other direction, slamming him against the opposite wall. Kim threw herself at Medusa, reaching her hand out for Jacqueline to transform, her bright green eyes alit with fire.

With a threatening smile, Medusa's eyes glinted mischievously, and Kim suddenly felt something move about in her stomach. Abruptly, Kim's body started to move on its own, making her stance drop from its fighting stance and relax into a cocky posture; Jacqueline clattered to the floor, confused at her meister's actions.

Kim was walking toward Medusa now, in a sort of prideful stride, the pink-haired girl was trying to get her body to obey her, but was finding that there was nothing that would listen. Ox watched as his love sauntered calmly over to their 'hostess', her body turned to face them as she stood beside the smirking woman, her own lips being tugged into a smug smile.

_Stop,_ Kim thought, _listen to me, you damn body! _

_And what makes you thing that it will listen?_

The voice that ran through her head was definitely not her own, so when Kim shot a mental glare toward Medusa, the hostess merely smiled in her direction.

_A witch. _ Kim growled through her thoughts.

_And you are too, are you not?_ Medusa responded smugly.

Kim's thought process nearly stopped, _How do you know that?_

"Witches can sense other witches," Medusa said aloud, it didn't seem as though she was speaking to the girl beside her, but instead to the other teenagers in front of her, "so no wonder this sweet girl wants to accomplice me."

Breath caught in Kim's throat when Medusa said that, if witches could sense each other, perhaps that was the feeling that had been haunting her this entire time, but what troubled her the most was that her deepest secret was just revealed in front of her friends. Ox and Kilik seemed to spark at her words, lifting up their heads to stare at both women in turn while Harvar was pushing himself up from the ground, eyebrows knotted. Jacqueline transformed back into her human form and pushed herself up from the ground, staring at Medusa with an accusing glare.

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Ox questioned, "Kim isn't a witch."

Medusa raised a playful eyebrow as she still smirked at those in front of her, "Oh she isn't?"

Ox narrowed his eyes, "Just what are you implying?"

With a chuckle, Medusa let her hands rest on Kim's shoulders, "My, my, after all this time, you've never noticed that the love of your life was a witch?"

Grinding his teeth together, Ox settled his eyes on Kim, "Kim, what are you doing? Tell her she's wrong!"

Kim clicked her tongue and twisted her face into an unattractive smirk, lips pulling up in an unnatural way that only someone as low as a kishin egg or witch could muster, "Stupid boy, what do you think you're thinking? All this time and no one ever noticed my true identity, this just proves how idiotic the people at Shibusen are."

_These aren't my words. _Kim was starting to panic.

Kilik's eyes widened, "Kim-!"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HER, MEDUSA?" Jacqueline exclaimed, brown eyes wild.

_Jacqueline! _Kim was suddenly hopeful, Jacqueline was the only one who knew that she wasn't like this, that she hated being witch and knew that she would never act this way.

"Doing?" Kim's voice asked, "Nothing of course, what are you? Stupid? Low life humans like you should all just go and die."

_Jacqueline, save me. _

Ox raised his voice as his posture stood up straighter, "Kim, snap out of it! This isn't the right choice!"

The witch slid her eyes over to him with a cocked head, "Hn? And why should I? There's nothing good out there but boring humans."

"Because I love you!" Ox shouted out, face set in complete determination to get the woman he loved back.

Crossing her arms, Kim snorted, "As if I've never heard that before."

_Please, Jacqueline._

The lantern seemed to see through the cruel gaze that was swimming in her meister's eyes and hear the plea.

Jacqueline suddenly snapped from her position, "_Stop controlling Kim, you bitch!"_

The weapon charged at the witch, arm transforming into the hot lantern, metal glowing red as she sped towards her, a trail of orange following her arm at the speed she was going. Medusa smirked as she watched the enraged girl in from of her; this was going to be easy.

_Jacqueline…_

Kim caught Jacqueline's wrist, her green eyes gloomy as she stared at her loyal partner, grip soft. The lantern calmed down, arm still ablaze with burning rage, but her brown eyes were sentimental, glad that her meister was coming back. The young witch in front of her smiled sweetly.

_Jacqueline…_

Jacqueline bit her trembling lip as she tried to hold back tears of rising happiness, rushing to throw herself into her meister's arm for a hug, but was confused when the grip on her wrist tightened to stop her from doing so. She looked up innocently at Kim, seeing the cute smile stretch into something more sinister.

The grip on her wrist tightened into a painful restraint, "K-kim, what are you-"

_Jacqueline… please get away._

"Don't lay your filthy hands on my master," Kim drew out slimily.

Kilik tried to rush forward, but wasn't able to pull Jacqueline away when Kim thrust the arm that was transformed into a lantern- still raging a bright red- into the unexpecting weapon's stomach.

The tears that were supposed to be ones of relief streamed down the lantern's face, disbelieving the fact that she was being killed by her own meister, whose weapon was her very own arm. The heat burned away at her insides, scalding the soft pink tissue and scorching away at the sensitive intestines, the flesh bubbling from inside of her.

Jacqueline dropped to the floor, her brown hair seeming to float in the air in slow motion as she fell, hitting the ground with a fleshy _thump_, her arm cooling down into a gray as her stomach still bubbled and smoldered away at her, an internal fire spreading throughout her body.

Kim felt her throat closing up to the point where she thought that she was going to pass out from lack of oxygen and fall dead, but she wasn't lucky enough for that apparently, because she was still alive while her partner was lying there on the ground.

_Why are you doing this to me? _ Kim questioned the witch, thoughts in a shock, _what have I done?_

_What has anyone done? _Medusa answered her, _I couldn't just keep a healing witch around now could I? Silly raccoon witch._

**42…**

Harvar's eyes widened behind his sharp glasses as he watched Jacqueline fall, one of the only people besides Ox that he could pleasantly speak to, and he felt an intense anger build up. With a swift movement, Harvar rocketed towards Kim, arm sharpened into a spear.

Medusa smirked, _Here comes the fun part, raccoon witch Kim Diehl. _

_Wha-?_

Suddenly, Kim was released, she felt consciousness return to her and she breathed in a large amount of air in relief. Now she would be able to explain to everybody what was happening. When she was looking towards the others to share, Kim noticed that Harvar was coming toward her at a blinding speed.

Her green eyes widened when the sharp blade of metal pierced through her stomach and out the other side of her body. Blood spurted out from her, dribbling down the side of her mouth when she coughed out the liquid that bubbled up in her throat.

"Harvar!" Ox and Kilik exclaimed, watching as Kim was struck, the twins were attached to their meister's pant leg, tears welling up on the edges of their eyes.

Ox watched his love fall down to the ground, clutching her stomach, grimacing, lips trembling. He was about to start toward her, but Kilik held onto his arm, earning a hard glance from the lighting spear meister. Ox tried to shrug out of his grip, but Kilik continued his hard grip.

Kim was in pain. Blood was soaking out from her fingers as she clutched the wound, trying to suppress it, and felt the tightness in her throat close ever harder, making her gasp for breath. Kim was choking on the air, trying to have it reach her desperate lungs; she was hoping that her powers would heal the burning wound, since something like this wouldn't be able to kill her with her healing powers all she needed to do was negotiate with everyone while she recovered.

_Oh, but that wouldn't be any fun now would it?_

Something stirred in her stomach that made Kim feel like she might retch, it was a revolting feel that squirmed up her stomach and into her chest cavity. A searing pain spread through her breastbone and rippled across her torso with a feel like her ribs were being cracked. Flinging a hand up from her stomach to her chest, Kim wheezed out a struggled breath, clotted blood throwing itself out from her body, and her form started to shake, body parts jerking at the spurs of pain. Her heartbeat was frantic, pumping desperately, and Kim's vision was hazy.

The raccoon witch saw blurry images as her glassy green eyes swiveled around. Harvar standing above her with a disgusted glare, Ox's devastated expression, Kilik's hurtfully betrayed emotions, Fire and Thunder's tear filled eyes, Jacqueline's body.

And the last thing she saw was Medusa's crazy smirk before the snake inside her body began to shred apart her soul from the inside.

**42…**

**A/N: So this chapter was short too =/ At least is wasn't as tiny as the last one…**

**I'm super sorry, but I had to kill off Kim D: We can't have a healer around, she'd just resurrect everybody (which probably would be a good thing), but then this story wouldn't go anywhere…**

**I also feel that I'm somewhat cruel, since my playlist for the chapter pretty much went like this:**

**Pretty Girl- Sugarcult**

**Worst Things- Johnny Hollow**

**Aegis- Johnny Hollow**

**Nyan Nyan (Rock Version)**

**We are Pop Candy- Hatsune Miku**

**And**

**Just be Friends- Piko Utatane**

**;A; I feel so messed up.**


	13. We're Too Late Is What He Said

**A/N: Um… Hey there? *Gets bricks thrown at her***

**Okay, I know, I know! It been a while…**

**But I have a good excuse! See, as of recently (the last three months or so), I've been developing carpal tunnel, so I haven't been able to do anything and am crippled from doing things (everything I love, like writing, drawing, typing, or being on the comp. in general).**

**Also, I recently became a freshman in high school this school year, so I have more work than I did before (I don't like high school).**

**Responses to reviews will be at the bottom for all you impatient people.**

**I'm also very sorry, since I haven't written in quite a while, my writing skills are (more than) a little rusty.**

**Disclaimer: I dunz own Soul Eater, because if I did, the manga probably wouldn't be as random as it is right now (Though, ch. 90 **_**did**_** make more sense than a lot of the recent chapters have). Title belongs to Webidolchiu94.**

**42…**

* * *

Chapter 13:

"We Were Too Late," Is What He Said.

* * *

The sound of frantic footsteps were heavy as Maka and the rest sped down every which winding hallway to try to reach the lobby. Once the initial shock of their other friends suddenly popping up had worn off, the four original Shibusen students sped off to try and prevent another tragedy, only to get lost and having to wait for Crona to catch up with them so he'd be able to lead the way.

The swordsman, now trying to run as fast as he could so that they could reach their destination in time, was not used to the feel of his thin legs becoming heavy the faster he tried to go, or the burning in his lungs. He was processing where they were in the building, which wasn't very easy seeing how every hallway looked the same, and let his memory and his gut lead him to the foyer. From his approximate calculations, it would take about five minutes to get to the lobby, but with the amount of traps springing at them, triggered by their reckless speed, it would probably take ten minutes at the least.

After narrowly missing a swift dagger from a random Kishin egg, Crona brought forth his weapon and went to swoop in closer to the monster, moving to stab it from behind in a surprise attack so that it would be quick and over with so that they would be able to be on their way again. There was definitely no time to dwell, once Medusa got her snakes in them, it was all over.

_What makes you think that it will listen?_

Crona was caught off guard, his aim entirely missing his target as he stopped in mid-attack in his confusion, puzzling the other meisters with his sudden halt. The boy's eyebrows furrowed. That was Medusa's voice wasn't it?

_And you are too, are you not?_

What was the witch talking about? She obviously wasn't speaking to him, but even if she were to speak to one of the others through their mind, Medusa usually wouldn't let Crona in on the conversation. Unless she just wanted to tease him.

_How do you know that?_

This time there was an unfamiliar voice that rang through Crona's mind; it sounded like it belonged to a young teenager. Images flickered through his mind, along with more unfamiliar voices, more teenagers. The ones from the foyer? They were too far away for any of them to hear from there, was this from Medusa's vision? No, no, the random thoughts that passed through Crona's brain belonged to someone else.

_Jacqueline. Please, Jacqueline. _

The pleading voice was chilling, Crona thought. Whose eyes was he seeing through?

The swordsman didn't register the blood splattering around him or the warmth of the thick liquid traveling down his cheek when the other students had finished off the Kishin egg, seeing that the monster was advancing and that Crona wasn't coming to attention, nor did he hear their words as they tried to talk to him, saying that they still needed a guide.

But the thing that Crona did register was the restless bundle of confusing emotions swirling around in his brain, even some feelings that he didn't know. Something like relief washed over him for a moment, but then there were more of those images that showed things happening that Crona was confused with, and utter horror filled him.

_Get away… Jacqueline._

There was a flash of red and orange and then there was the disgusting vision of blood and pink insides.

The sound of Crona's blade crashing to the floor echoed around the corridor. Tears streamed out from his eyes as he watched the beautiful relief and happiness of a young girl's face mold into disbelief and betrayal.

Pain. There was so much pain. Why? There weren't any wounds on him, and felt as though it was in his chest. Was there something inside of him that was causing so many tears to stream down his face?

The boy was breathing heavily, fighting against hyperventilation, reaching up to his throbbing head to try to keep his thoughts from buzzing around so franticly in his brain.

_Stop…_ Crona thought, _stop it. I don't like this._

There was more movement, and then there was physical pain, right in his stomach. Crona wanted to scream, scream so badly at the pain that spread all over his torso, the burning in his chest (that one hurt the most), to just stop.

_Stop. Please stop._

What was this bitter feeling in his chest right now? It was a mixure of disbelief and sadness, something that was unfamiliar to the swordsman. Hopelessness? No. Maybe? He didn't know, and at the moment, he didn't really care. The pain that was shredding through his stomach was growing, and the swordsman didn't like that.

"Stop…" Crona whispered, "Stop it."

But then the worst happened, it felt like the snake inside of him was trying to crawl out of his body through his throat when a sudden feeling that ripped at his soul hit.

* * *

**42…**

* * *

"AAAAAGH!"

The Shibusen meisters jumped back from the screaming swordsman as sudden wave of panic washed over them. Crona was holding his head and wailing at the top of his lungs as though in pain, crumpling onto his knees and holding his chest tightly; whimpers and shuddering breaths mingling in his with loud cries.

When Crona had suddenly paused at the attack he was about to launch onto the monster that had suddenly blocked their way, the meisters had to quickly react to deal with the Kishin egg they had expected to be dead. Since they knew that the swordsman was quick with his kills, they were more than a little puzzled at his abrupt hesitance. They noticed as they fought it, that the swordsman didn't move during the duration of their fight, not dropping the pose of holding his sword in a jutting position with spread legs and bent knees.

The glazed over look in the boy's pale blue eyes scared Maka for a moment, thinking that, somehow, the boy had died in an unexplainable manner, only to be relieved when she saw that he was breathing.

They had tried to talk to the boy, but had only gotten silence in return. Death the Kid was getting angry and impatient, yelling at him about how they still needed a guide, only to stop when the boy's sword clanged against the floor and saw tears streaming out from the swordsman's glazed eyes.

Maka had immediately moved forward in concern, gripping onto the metal handle of Soul tightly, biting at her lip worriedly.

"Crona," Maka had started, "Crona, what's wrong?"

The scythe meister reached out to consult the disturbed boy, touching his shoulder gently, but drew back when she heard hushed words fall out from his stiff lips.

"Stop…"

"What?" Confusion was written across the scythe meister's face as she tried to comprehend what Crona had said, "What is it, Crona?"

"Stop it."

Then, when the swordsman finally did move, he was moving his shaking hands to his head, gripping at his hair and trembling. More mumbles had come out through his lips, panicked and pained.

"Stop it, stop it, stop it. It hurts." He kept repeating.

Death the Kid went up to the boy and shook him by his shoulders, "Tell us what's wrong!"

It was then that the boy started screaming, agony pure in his voice, and his eyes crazed and unseeing.

* * *

**42…**

* * *

Medusa hummed as she tapped her foot in rhythm to the made up tune, watching all of the monitors in the large media room, where she was currently positioned, that was residing somewhere in the large building.

Once she had controlled Kim, it was easy to distract those Shibusen meisters from her presence, and she had easily slipped away. They were still children and weren't even able to keep track of their enemy when one of their comrades were acting strange.

Which isn't very much fun at all.

But that's exactly why Medusa loved her first batch of mice; they were so mature and able to keep fighting. The fact that her child was mixed within them made it all the more better, she was surprised he had even made it this far, considering that the majority of the pack didn't trust him.

The witch smiled happily as she watched more of the events unfold in front of here, aware of the presence of Ragnarok behind her.

"What are you doing all the way over there? Can't you come join me?" Medusa asked sweetly.

The young man grunted, "Nah, nothing interesting's happenin'."

"What do you mean?" Medusa asked disbelievingly, "I think right now is the most interesting thing that's happened as of yet!"

She only got another grunt in return.

"Look," She started, "I know that you don't like the idea of your brother* being in this whole thing, but it's the only way for him to learn more about how the Shibusen students strategize their fighting and what their weaknesses are."

_You could've just let go to the school like a normal person._

"Anyways, Ragnarok, it's not as if he has any importance, so there's no need to worry."

Medusa returned her attention to the screens, ignoring the hard glance that was sent her way from cold grey eyes. Ragnarok set his lips into a line and walked out of the media room, closing the door a bit softer than he usually would have, and wound through the halls of the mansion.

* * *

**42…**

* * *

Wheezing breaths started to slow down as Maka picked the crumbled boy up from the ground, calling out his name to regain his consciousness.

"Just leave him, Maka, we'll find them on our own." Soul told her through his weapon form, "We've already wasted enough time."

"I agree with him, Maka," Kid said strictly, "We have to _go._"

Maka wasn't listening to them, their raised voices passed through one ear out the other as she hoped for Crona to be all right.

"…te…"

Maka's eyes widened. While the yells of Kid and Soul were nothing to her, the small voice of Crona caught her attention, "Crona, what is it?"*

Crona's eyes started to look alive again, though, instead of his regular stoic expression, there was panic and new tears were budding up within the corner of his eyes.

"We were too late." is what he said.

* * *

**42…**

* * *

***So I made Crona and Raggy brothers for the sake of convenience (for me).**

***"What is it Crona, boy? Is Johnny stuck in the well again?" I'm sorry, that's all that was passing through my mind as I wrote that.**

**A/N: Alrighty then-**

**Responses to Reviews:**

**Satashi of the Muffins: Heck yeah! *Highfives back***

**Webidolchui94: Honest, even I don't know what'll happen next XD (I make stuff up as I go)**

**Kara Black: Thank you for the review!**

**Blackbloodbaby: I absolutely loved your long review~ It makes me feel really smug when you compliment me like that. Yeah, I'm pretty evil aren't I? :D**

**SoulStealer121: A punch in the face, huh? I rather like that comparison, it means I'm doing my job XD **

**So from now on, I think that I'll only respond to anonymous and people who don't allow PMs on my story and I'll Private Message the rest. I think that it'd make chapters seem less cluttered. So if you allow PMs, expect mail from me XD **

**PRESS THE PRETTY BUTTON!**


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